Owen Sound Council Meeting - Regular Meeting Transcript — September 8, 2025

00:00:51 Speaker 01: It's five thirty p.m., and I'll call the meeting to order of Oceanside City Council, September eighth, two thousand twenty-five.

00:00:59 Speaker 01: We are absent this evening, Mayor Boddy and Councillor Dodd, and joined with Councillor Hamley online.

00:01:07 Speaker 01: First item I'd like to just bring forward this evening is some notes about remembering Ann Kelly, who the community lost kind of during our summer hiatus.

00:01:20 Speaker 01: I'd like to begin tonight's meeting by remembering former City Councillor Ann Kelly, who passed away in August.

00:01:26 Speaker 01: She passed away on August 3rd in her ninety-fourth year.

00:01:29 Speaker 01: Anne served on Owen Sound City Council from one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine to one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven, and again from two thousand and one to two thousand and three.

00:01:38 Speaker 01: She was a thoughtful leader whose voice and perspective made a lasting difference around council chambers and throughout our city.

00:01:45 Speaker 01: Beyond her years on council, Anne was a tireless volunteer and community champion.

00:01:50 Speaker 01: She was recognized as Owen Sound Volunteer of the Year in one thousand nine hundred and ninety-two, and later with the Ontario June Cowan Award for outstanding achievement in volunteerism in two thousand and nine.

00:02:04 Speaker 01: Her contributions to events like the Festival Northern Lights, Bells of Christmas, and Santa's Workshop touched generations and enriched the lives of many, and leaves behind a legacy of service, compassion, and community spirit.

00:02:19 Speaker 01: On behalf of Council and the City of Owen Sound, I extend our heartfelt condolences.

00:02:22 Speaker 01: We send our heartfelt condolences to her family, friends, and all who had the privilege of knowing her.

00:02:28 Speaker 01: Flags at city facilities have been lowered to half-mast over the past week in her honour.

00:02:35 Speaker 01: I ask you to now join me in a moment of silence, reflection, and prayer for Ann Kelly.

00:03:06 Speaker 01: Thank you very much.

00:03:14 Speaker 01: Next item before council this evening is any additional business.

00:03:19 Speaker 01: Councillor Farmer, go ahead.

00:03:22 Speaker 02: Thank you to the chair.

00:03:23 Speaker 02: I'd like to speak about an upcoming civic engagement promotion event.

00:03:32 Speaker 02: And any others, Councillor Middlebrooke.

00:03:37 Speaker 02: I'll just have a few comments on attending the AAMO conference in Ottawa and the Sportsman Fish Tent at the Derby.

00:03:47 Speaker 02: Okay.

00:03:47 Speaker 02: Thank you, Councillor Farmer.

00:03:49 Speaker 02: Again, thank you through the chair.

00:03:52 Speaker 02: With the mayor absent, I'll speak to Summerfolks' 50th festival as well.

00:03:57 Speaker 02: Perfect.

00:03:57 Speaker 02: Thank you.

00:03:59 Speaker 01: Not seeing any others.

00:04:00 Speaker 01: I also have some comments regarding the Concours d'Elegance coming this weekend.

00:04:06 Speaker 01: Item three is declarations of interest.

00:04:10 Speaker 01: Are there any declarations to be expressed at this time?

00:04:15 Speaker 01: Oh, I'll go to Councillor Hamlin online.

00:04:16 Speaker 01: Mr. Hamlin, online.

00:04:19 Speaker 01: Yep.

00:04:20 Speaker 01: Just declaring a direct pecuniary interest in item 21I.

00:04:26 Speaker 03: It's a bylaw executing a contribution agreement with the Minister of Transport, respecting a Connecting Links programmemememememememememememe.

00:04:34 Speaker 03: And the nature of my interest is that I work for the Government of Ontario.

00:04:39 Speaker 03: Okay.

00:04:39 Speaker 01: Thank you for that.

00:04:41 Speaker 01: Not seeing any further items at this time.

00:04:45 Speaker 01: Item four is confirmation of the council minutes.

00:04:48 Speaker 01: Two sets of minutes.

00:04:49 Speaker 01: Councillor Kepkay, go ahead.

00:04:52 Speaker 01: Thank you, Your Worship.

00:04:54 Speaker 04: Moved by myself, seconded by Councillor Kukreja, that the minutes of the following meetings be adopted as printed: the regular council meeting held on July twenty-one, two thousand and twenty-five,

00:05:09 Speaker 01: Are there any questions to those minutes?

00:05:14 Speaker 01: Not seeing any.

00:05:15 Speaker 01: All those in favour of approval, and that's carried unanimously.

00:05:19 Speaker 01: Thank you.

00:05:21 Speaker 01: Item five: Motion to move council into committee of the whole.

00:05:24 Speaker 04: Moved by myself, seconded by Councillor Kukreja, that City Council now move into committee of the whole to consider public meetings, deputations and presentations, public forum matters arising from correspondence, reports of city staff, consent agenda,

00:05:39 Speaker 04: committee minutes, matters postponed, motions for which notice was previously given, and additional business.

00:05:48 Speaker 01: And all those in favour, and carried.

00:05:51 Speaker 01: Thank you.

00:05:53 Speaker 01: This evening we have no public meetings.

00:05:56 Speaker 01: We do have a timely deputation, and when I say timely, kind of coinciding with the upcoming start of the hockey season.

00:06:04 Speaker 01: And we're welcome to have Dr. Bob Severs and some other On Sound Attack representatives.

00:06:10 Speaker 01: One Sound Attack representatives with us this evening, and I think a couple of you are coming to the podium.

00:06:15 Speaker 01: And probably, if I invite you to introduce the administrative and the management team that is presenting here this evening, so welcome, Bob.

00:06:28 Speaker 05: Thank you, Your Worship, and we want to thank the council for giving us the opportunity to come and speak to you about the Attack's role in the community in twenty-four twenty-five.

00:06:39 Speaker 05: In 24-25, we want to congratulate the council and the city on making the rink so beautiful and safer and hopefully faster.

00:06:55 Speaker 05: And the Bayshore staff for the continued cooperation that we get from them.

00:07:04 Speaker 05: You've got tickets, I think, everybody to come to the home opener, and we would love to see you there.

00:07:11 Speaker 05: And just before I introduce Amelia Boyd, who's going to actually talk to you, I just want to also note that we lost Faye Harshman this year, and she was like my sister,

00:07:27 Speaker 05: and it was a huge blow.

00:07:29 Speaker 05: But anyway, we remember Faye for her amazing business acumen and how well she did for the community.

00:07:41 Speaker 05: So anyway, here's Amelia Boyd.

00:07:42 Speaker 05: She'll talk to you.

00:07:46 Speaker 06: Hello, and thank you for your time this evening.

00:07:50 Speaker 06: So I'll start off introducing myself.

00:07:52 Speaker 06: My name is Amelia Boyd.

00:07:54 Speaker 06: I do the social media and content creation for the Owen Sound Attack.

00:07:58 Speaker 06: I've been with the team for three years now, or this is my third year.

00:08:02 Speaker 06: So I'll start off with just introducing some of the things that the Owen Sound Attack has done outside of the organisation that brings awareness not only to the Attack but also to the Owen Sound

00:08:13 Speaker 06: name.

00:08:15 Speaker 06: We've had multiple players with the Halinka Gretzky Cup up on the board.

00:08:20 Speaker 06: You can see a photo of one of our players, Pierce Bowie.

00:08:24 Speaker 06: You might recognize the name if you've been to any of our games before.

00:08:28 Speaker 06: So, a little introduction of what the Halinka Gretzky Cup is.

00:08:32 Speaker 06: It's an international U18 game that's run annually, normally around August time, so the end of the CHL playoffs.

00:08:42 Speaker 06: So it's a competition between Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Slovakia, Sweden, and the United States.

00:08:53 Speaker 06: So not only was Pierce selected out of 24 others in the CHL,

00:08:59 Speaker 06: but you can also see there's some other players there that were representative of our team during the two thousand and twenty-five Connor McDavid Top Prospects Game, which took place in Brampton, Ontario.

00:09:11 Speaker 06: So, not only is this a great opportunity for our guys to get their name out there, but it's also a great opportunity for them to show off additional skills.

00:09:20 Speaker 06: Once again, bringing the Owen Sound name into the picture, as there are a lot of scouting opportunities for them to talk about themselves, where they grew up, where the team is.

00:09:31 Speaker 06: Additionally, some more on-ice successes is with a name you would probably recommend, Carter George.

00:09:41 Speaker 06: He recently was in the World Juniors Championship, once again representing Owen Sound and Team Canada.

00:09:50 Speaker 06: Something that I wanted to touch on a little bit is that we do have a lot of players that are high-profile players, and as such, they are invited to NHL camps,

00:09:58 Speaker 06: which not only puts the Owen Sound name out there once again, but it's also a great opportunity for us as a franchise,

00:10:07 Speaker 06: showcasing just the type of talent that we have to showcase out of Owen Sound, which is one of the smallest markets in the OHL.

00:10:18 Speaker 06: So specifically on NHL draft coverage, in the past year we've had multiple players drafted within the first seven rounds.

00:10:27 Speaker 06: David Bedard.

00:10:28 Speaker 06: David Bedkowski went to the Buffalo Sabers.

00:10:31 Speaker 06: Actually, fun little pointer here as well.

00:10:34 Speaker 06: We just dropped him off today, so wish him good luck.

00:10:38 Speaker 06: Harry Nancy is going to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

00:10:41 Speaker 06: Trenton Bennett is heading to New Jersey Devils.

00:10:45 Speaker 06: Carter George with the LA Kings, and then Sam McHugh, who's no longer on our team, but was drafted and signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs as well.

00:11:01 Speaker 06: So a huge part of our organisation and franchise is the fans and the experience.

00:11:07 Speaker 06: Without them, we wouldn't be here.

00:11:10 Speaker 06: So we offer a couple different experiences for them: post-game skates, team signings, school visits, and summer barbecues.

00:11:20 Speaker 06: So with the post-game skates, which are by Investment Planning Council, it allows fans, mostly children, to go after the game onto the ice with players, get to know them a little bit more,

00:11:32 Speaker 06: have this one-on-one time, get signatures, take photos, etc. Team signings, which are brought from the Bayshore Physical Therapy, happen every once in a while,

00:11:43 Speaker 06: as well as a select few events that happen around Owen Sound, where we will occasionally have one to two players that are able to.

00:11:53 Speaker 06: sign things for people after the game, or sometimes we'll go out to restaurants and have more than five players attend, and we'll be going around to tables and talking to people, getting to know them,

00:12:08 Speaker 06: having those one-on-one conversations as well as signing.

00:12:12 Speaker 06: Specifically, the school visits—one of my favourite parts of the job—is going out to all the schools.

00:12:17 Speaker 06: We partner with the CMHA, Grey Bruce, so Jackie and myself and Evan, our community coordinator, will go out with three to four players to schools in the local area.

00:12:32 Speaker 06: We'll go and play some floor hockey with kids, ages from kindergarten all the way up to grade eight.

00:12:39 Speaker 06: So, as you would expect, it would be a really fun time seeing all of these six-foot players play with these tiny little humans,

00:12:47 Speaker 06: and then they also get a chance to talk with the players whilst the game is happening, which gives them a little bit of that starstruck moment,

00:12:54 Speaker 06: but also a way for the guys to connect within the community and build up everything from confidence in the kids that are maybe looking at getting into hockey,

00:13:04 Speaker 06: maybe even going over mental health tips on what they do as high-profile players who are constantly in the eye of the public.

00:13:14 Speaker 06: And then finally, our summer barbecue, which profiles some of our prospects.

00:13:19 Speaker 06: That we bring in during the late season of the playoffs and early summertime, they're able to get a chance to see what Owen Sound brings, not only as a fan experience,

00:13:33 Speaker 06: but also what we are as a community.

00:13:36 Speaker 06: As I mentioned before, Owen Sound is one of the smaller teams in the OHL,

00:13:43 Speaker 06: so it is nice to showcase that we are just as loud and just as proud as a lot of the other teams, which are based out of these larger communities such as Windsor or London,

00:13:54 Speaker 06: which have fan bases that are very significantly large.

00:13:58 Speaker 06: So with the summer barbecue, not only will they be able to look at the players during a ball game, but they'll also get to see an award ceremony afterwards, as well as a lunch.

00:14:11 Speaker 06: I'd like to also make a quick note that we have an amazing fan base group called the Attack Pack, which is run by Dave Krukshank, Pete Miller, and Wendy Reed.

00:14:21 Speaker 06: So fans aren't only just attending the games and seeing these outreaches that we do, events-wise, but they also are able to go on scheduled trips with the Attack Pack,

00:14:33 Speaker 06: where they are able to attend games that aren't necessarily in Owen Sound.

00:14:37 Speaker 06: This year, they're planning to go to the Sioux as well as Kingston.

00:14:41 Speaker 06: So look on our website for more details on that.

00:14:44 Speaker 06: But they also do small things such as having stickers for kids, and they'll have pins at their booth.

00:14:51 Speaker 06: So it's really good.

00:14:54 Speaker 06: Some of the things that we did last year for outreach, we did Gman Cares, which raised sixty-three thousand seven hundred four dollars,

00:15:04 Speaker 06: which was a great way for us to just give back to the community and the funding that they were looking for.

00:15:14 Speaker 06: We also do an annual hockey fights cancer game, which helps to bring awareness to those that are going through cancer treatment or have a story with cancer in the community.

00:15:26 Speaker 06: We were able to raise a significant amount of money for this.

00:15:34 Speaker 06: Hoodies, which was last year, one of our high-profile players, Landon Hooky, was passionate about speaking about a loss that he had had in his family; an uncle of his had passed due to suicide.

00:15:52 Speaker 06: And as such, he wanted to talk about the importance of mental health not only in sports but also outside of sports.

00:15:59 Speaker 06: So as such, we took to doing something that's of comfort.

00:16:03 Speaker 06: So we decided to do hoodies, which gives Hoodie Hooky hoodies.

00:16:07 Speaker 06: And in a short time, we were able to raise six thousand six hundred and twenty-five dollars with multiple orders.

00:16:16 Speaker 06: There were many people that were interested.

00:16:19 Speaker 06: We had to restock multiple times for these hoodies, and they now have a website up and running.

00:16:24 Speaker 06: Him and his sister.

00:16:28 Speaker 06: So, for donations, the Attack Pack has donated over one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars to the community.

00:16:35 Speaker 06: Now, this seems like a large number, but with that number, this is with cash donations as well as in-kind product donations.

00:16:46 Speaker 06: So this will be with tickets, with some of our seat suites, seats, signed sticks, memorabilia, and such.

00:16:55 Speaker 06: So just last year, we had thirteen usher groups that were donated to, which also receives fifty dollars per volunteer usher.

00:17:04 Speaker 06: Monetary partnerships we were in the range of twenty.

00:17:06 Speaker 06: We were in the range of 24 to 26 groups that we were able to help,

00:17:10 Speaker 06: and then we also have the five charity games that we were able to help produce some benefits with as well.

00:17:18 Speaker 06: Attack staff, comparatively to other teams in the OHL, we are a little bit on the smaller side, but small and proud.

00:17:26 Speaker 06: So, in our front office, we have seven full-time workers, and then we help to employ 80 part-time positions.

00:17:36 Speaker 06: So the 80 part-time positions consists of bar and concession, ushers, off-ice officials, ticket takers, security, mascots.

00:17:44 Speaker 06: It takes a village to be able to do game days, and it shows in our employment list.

00:17:51 Speaker 06: Academic success.

00:17:53 Speaker 06: The Attack hold a very high regard in our academic success and have a very big push for our academic success as we want our players to not only succeed on ice but also off-ice,

00:18:06 Speaker 06: in the classroom.

00:18:07 Speaker 06: As an example, all of our school day kids, as we call them, those that are still in high school, will attend school for the first couple mornings, for the first couple hours of the morning;

00:18:19 Speaker 06: they will then come to the rink where they will get in-house tutoring from one of our academic advisors, Sarah Rao, and her team of private tutors.

00:18:32 Speaker 06: This gives the team not only the opportunity to get some one-on-one time as a team and connect, also in the classroom,

00:18:39 Speaker 06: but also gives them that one-on-one with the teachers if they're needing some extra help in the classroom.

00:18:47 Speaker 06: We also have racked up a couple awards in the OHL.

00:18:55 Speaker 06: So the Bobby Smith Trophy Award is an annual award gifted to the OHL Scholastic Player of the Year, who best combines high standards of playing and academic excellence;

00:19:07 Speaker 06: the Attack have had that awarded to them not only once but twice.

00:19:13 Speaker 06: We've also had the Ivan Tennent Memorial Award, which is awarded to the top academic high school player in the OHL, and we have had that awarded to us not once, not five times,

00:19:26 Speaker 06: but six times in our franchise history.

00:19:32 Speaker 06: Are there any questions?

00:19:36 Speaker 01: Thank you very much for that presentation on the impact that the Attack Pack has on the community, and the excitement and the inspiration that you provide for so many people.

00:19:49 Speaker 01: There's so much inspiration and motivation to the youth across Grey Bruce counties, and probably some Simcoe County as well that come over and cheer for the right team, the home team here,

00:20:01 Speaker 01: and also the excitement too.

00:20:04 Speaker 01: Doesn't seem like that many years ago.

00:20:05 Speaker 01: I can remember the Attack Pack coming back up from a game in Mississauga, and it's more than just a couple of years ago.

00:20:13 Speaker 01: But I'm sure we're all enthusiastically looking forward to the next time that happens again, and I hope it's in the very near future.

00:20:21 Speaker 01: Are there any questions from council to the presentation, Councillor Merton?

00:20:27 Speaker 07: Not so much a question, but just to let you know, you may say that you're small, but you're mighty, and the reason for that is your reputation is far widespread.

00:20:43 Speaker 07: Quite some time ago, before we made the decision to come to Owen Sound, I didn't hear about the Rocks, Trees, and Waters.

00:20:50 Speaker 07: I heard about the Attack Pack and the hockey spirit in this city, and that was the first thing that I heard.

00:21:01 Speaker 07: And I lived a little distance away, so never think that just because you're small, you don't have an impact and an influence widespread.

00:21:13 Speaker 07: Absolutely.

00:21:14 Speaker 07: Any other questions, comments?

00:21:17 Speaker 07: Not seeing any.

00:21:18 Speaker 01: Again, thank you very much for the presentation.

00:21:21 Speaker 01: Very timely, and the council and the residents and staff are all wishing the very best of success to all the players and to the team throughout the upcoming season.

00:21:33 Speaker 01: Before I just wrap up or close off, I'll just go to Councillor Koepke for a comment.

00:21:38 Speaker 01: Thank you.

00:21:39 Speaker 01: Sorry about that.

00:21:40 Speaker 04: I wonder if you just over the PA system announce when the first game is and who they're playing, etc. Thank you, Neil.

00:21:50 Speaker 06: Our first home game, which will be our home opener, will be the 27th of this month, September, and we will be facing off against the Kitchener Rangers.

00:22:02 Speaker 08: We look forward to hopefully the second victory of the year by that time.

00:22:06 Speaker 08: Maybe, fingers crossed.

00:22:08 Speaker 08: Without putting any bulletin board material on the doors for the other rooms, it's interesting you mentioned London had a team.

00:22:17 Speaker 08: You mentioned Windsor and London.

00:22:19 Speaker 08: That's interesting to know they have a team in London.

00:22:27 Speaker 08: So thank you very much, Amelia and Dr. Severs, and to Mr. McCutcheon as well to Greg.

00:22:36 Speaker 08: Thank for your time and presentation to the community here tonight.

00:22:40 Speaker 08: So good luck in the upcoming season.

00:22:48 Speaker 08: Item eight is public forum.

00:22:51 Speaker 08: Are there any members of the public who wish to make comments within the public forum this evening?

00:22:57 Speaker 08: If so, this is the time to come up to the microphone.

00:23:01 Speaker 08: Please state your name and place of residency and position on council with your comments or concerns.

00:23:13 Speaker 08: Good afternoon.

00:23:14 Speaker 09: My name is Chris Long, and I live at 719 First Avenue East, just over Nine First Avenue East, just over around the corner here in Owen Sound, beautiful Owen Sound.

00:23:22 Speaker 09: And you know, I do get out and about, and I talk to the community quite a bit.

00:23:25 Speaker 09: One concern it always comes up to me, and the reason I'm here today, is the downtown core situation.

00:23:33 Speaker 09: With Tent City being across the road from my house, I know myself.

00:23:38 Speaker 09: I've had my house, my window of my house, smashed three or four times by the wonderful residents of downtown Owen Sound, reporting it to the police, and nothing is happening.

00:23:52 Speaker 09: So I know a lot of the people that I've talked to in the community are quite concerned, and would like to know what the goal is going forward here,

00:24:03 Speaker 09: especially with the likes of Safe and Sound.

00:24:10 Speaker 09: That's that's the comments there.

00:24:12 Speaker 09: Okay.

00:24:14 Speaker 08: You may or may not be aware that we did have a meeting amongst community stakeholders, perhaps around a month ago, and hopefully we'll have some follow-up actions that are resultant from that meeting.

00:24:30 Speaker 08: You also do have two police board members who have heard your concerns expressed this evening, and that's certainly material they can follow up on in future meetings within their roles as police board members.

00:24:45 Speaker 08: Is there any other questions from council?

00:24:47 Speaker 08: Comments?

00:24:49 Speaker 08: Not seeing any.

00:24:50 Speaker 08: I appreciate those concerns being expressed, Chris.

00:24:58 Speaker 08: Thank you very much.

00:24:59 Speaker 09: Like I said, it's just—it's a concern, and I mean I know that, like I said, my window, my front door has been smashed three times.

00:25:07 Speaker 09: My car has been broken into five times.

00:25:11 Speaker 09: It's just—it's becoming too much.

00:25:13 Speaker 08: Okay, thank you.

00:25:14 Speaker 08: We're certainly empathetic to the situation.

00:25:23 Speaker 08: Are there any other public members wishing to speak?

00:25:28 Speaker 08: Go ahead, please push the button.

00:25:29 Speaker 08: Turn the microphone on.

00:25:39 Speaker 10: Hello, James.

00:25:40 Speaker 10: I guess some people know me.

00:25:41 Speaker 10: I'm in town.

00:25:41 Speaker 10: I'm on social media.

00:25:44 Speaker 10: I'm going to be doing the car show coming up this weekend too, live.

00:25:47 Speaker 10: So if anybody wants to watch that, and my one concern is or a couple here, there should be.

00:25:57 Speaker 10: This is for the police.

00:25:58 Speaker 10: Whoever relating to the police, I think there should be cameras down Carney Lane.

00:26:04 Speaker 10: There should be cameras down Carney Lane, and also, I noticed that some homeless people have a certain trend of using blue bins as their suitcases.

00:26:20 Speaker 10: And I've noticed this a few times.

00:26:23 Speaker 10: Once I notice it again, I will document it, or at least try to, without causing too much of a disturbance.

00:26:29 Speaker 10: And yeah, and cops aren't doing anything about it.

00:26:36 Speaker 10: And I think the police need to get undercover so they can make easier arrests for the illegal drugs that are going around.

00:26:49 Speaker 10: And would it make sense?

00:26:50 Speaker 10: Like, because they're just running from the uniform police or hiding stuff from the uniform police, and they're not—they can't check them, right, without probable cause.

00:27:01 Speaker 10: And I think it'd be a little bit better to increase the arrests on the illegal drug use in town, and yeah, I think that'd be about it.

00:27:15 Speaker 01: Okay, thank you for expressing the concerns.

00:27:18 Speaker 01: I'll go to Councillor Merton, who is one of the two police board members.

00:27:23 Speaker 07: Through you, thank you, James.

00:27:27 Speaker 07: I wonder.

00:27:29 Speaker 07: I have a question for city staff, but also have a question back to you, if I may.

00:27:35 Speaker 07: Have you communicated this in writing or attended a police services board to speak?

00:27:44 Speaker 07: I think the issues you raise, for sure, we will pass along.

00:27:48 Speaker 07: But I can't.

00:27:50 Speaker 07: Have you done that?

00:27:52 Speaker 07: That's my first.

00:27:53 Speaker 07: Okay, so that wasn't heard.

00:27:57 Speaker 08: Without being at the microphone, the gentleman did mention that he has done it once and didn't realize that there is a public session where members of the public are able to speak there.

00:28:12 Speaker 08: Councillor, go ahead.

00:28:14 Speaker 07: I certainly recommend that you connect with them directly and ask for that opportunity.

00:28:20 Speaker 07: My experience has also been when there's documentation of concerns, those documentations also can be shared to others, so it allows that networking of concerns.

00:28:35 Speaker 07: I often say to people, use more than one approach to get the message across.

00:28:41 Speaker 07: But yeah, and I'm sure with your experience, yeah.

00:28:47 Speaker 07: But but just and also if you have any concerns as well, that around the that our city manager would also be someone you would.

00:28:58 Speaker 07: Okay, perfect.

00:29:01 Speaker 07: So it sounds like you, and that's why continuing to always speak if there's additional issues is is a good thing.

00:29:13 Speaker 07: So it's great you've done it once, but maybe there's additional issues you'd like to bring forward.

00:29:18 Speaker 07: Yeah, yeah.

00:29:20 Speaker 07: And I wanted to ask our city staff: who makes the decision about purchase and location of the cameras?

00:29:26 Speaker 07: Is that specifically?

00:29:28 Speaker 07: City staff is that in conjunction with police services.

00:29:32 Speaker 07: Who makes that decision?

00:29:36 Speaker 11: Through you, Deputy Mayor Greig, to Councillor Merton.

00:29:39 Speaker 11: Yeah, the location of and purchase of the of the cameras was all done through council report.

00:29:45 Speaker 11: We highlighted the areas that was done in consultation with police services also.

00:29:49 Speaker 11: But it really, we're just expecting the second round of cameras to be delivered.

00:29:55 Speaker 11: They should be installed in the next six to seven weeks, but it really hits the main intersections to create more of a net, so to speak, over the entire River District area.

00:30:08 Speaker 01: Okay.

00:30:09 Speaker 01: Thanks for those comments.

00:30:10 Speaker 01: Are there any other members of the public wishing to speak this evening?

00:30:18 Speaker 01: I will grant you that flexibility.

00:30:21 Speaker 01: He didn't consume your full three minutes, so these.

00:30:25 Speaker 01: Please turn the microphone back on, Mr. Long.

00:30:28 Speaker 09: This is going towards the cameras.

00:30:30 Speaker 09: Comment: The cameras are great if they're utilised.

00:30:38 Speaker 09: I know quite a few people.

00:30:41 Speaker 09: I know one person in particular that was jumped outside the harbour, and the cops could not do anything about it because the camera was far too grainy.

00:30:52 Speaker 09: There's no way to identify any individual on the cameras that we have today.

00:31:02 Speaker 09: That's just my concern.

00:31:06 Speaker 09: Okay, I'll go back to the city manager for response.

00:31:09 Speaker 09: There, thank you, and through you to the gentleman.

00:31:13 Speaker 11: Yeah, the cameras that we installed most recently are all 4K quality.

00:31:17 Speaker 11: They're high quality video, so the police services I know do constantly access the footage of that, so I'm not certain where the graininess of the footage comment is coming from within police services.

00:31:29 Speaker 11: But I know the cameras that we purchased most recently in the next round being put up are all 4K high definition cameras.

00:31:39 Speaker 11: Okay, thank you.

00:31:42 Speaker 01: All right.

00:31:42 Speaker 01: So our next item is item nine correspondence received, for which direction of council is required, and there are no correspondence items being presented for consideration this evening.

00:31:53 Speaker 01: So we're under item ten, which is reports of city staff.

00:31:57 Speaker 01: The first report is ten A, and this time I think I will go to the director of corporate services to speak to this report.

00:32:11 Speaker 12: Thank you, Councillor Greg.

00:32:12 Speaker 12: My report this evening presents a request from the developer of Bayshore Terrace to defer the payment of development charges until the time of building occupancy.

00:32:21 Speaker 12: Under the city's current bylaw, development charges are payable at the time of building permit issuance.

00:32:30 Speaker 12: Staff do not have the authority under our current delegation of authority to decide on these requests, and therefore it is in front of council today.

00:32:37 Speaker 12: Despite the rationale provided, staff are not recommending the approval of the deferral.

00:32:41 Speaker 12: This position is not a reflection of the developer specifically, but rather a concern with setting a precedent that could make it difficult to deny similar requests in the future.

00:32:51 Speaker 12: In the absence of a legislative framework to support this type of deferral, there is increased risk to the city.

00:32:57 Speaker 12: Future collection could become uncertain, particularly if ownership changes or if payment is not voluntarily provided at occupancy.

00:33:05 Speaker 12: If the province does move forward with enabling this legislation, it is anticipated that security such as a letter of credit would be required to mitigate those risks.

00:33:14 Speaker 12: The report outlines the relevant legislation.

00:33:15 Speaker 12: The relevant legislative context, the developer's request, and supporting documentation, and I'm happy to answer any other questions that Council may have.

00:33:24 Speaker 12: Thanks, Kate, Councillor Middlebrooke, and then Councillor Farmer next.

00:33:29 Speaker 12: Thank you, through you, Deputy Mayor Greig.

00:33:32 Speaker 13: My thoughts on this are that we need to try and support development, however and whenever we can.

00:33:42 Speaker 13: Development charges, until very recently, we had waived for purpose-built development.

00:33:47 Speaker 13: We have decided that we are going to collect them now for hard services and for the rec centre.

00:33:54 Speaker 13: And I think this is a good time to remind the public that development charges aren't just a free for all where we take the development charges and just put it into general revenue and we

00:34:07 Speaker 13: get to spend it however we want.

00:34:08 Speaker 13: It is under the Development Charges Act that we collect these.

00:34:12 Speaker 13: The funds go into specific reserve accounts, and it's the idea that growth funds growth.

00:34:21 Speaker 13: So my question, my first question to the director would be, do we have any specific infrastructure needs that this money would be utilised immediately?

00:34:38 Speaker 14: Yes.

00:34:38 Speaker 14: So we are currently using the development charges that we collect to pay off debt associated with the wastewater treatment plant and the regional rec centre.

00:34:46 Speaker 14: So certainly, those components of any DCs collected are immediately applied to the existing debt.

00:34:54 Speaker 13: Do we have the ability to collect partial development charges, or is it all at once?

00:35:01 Speaker 13: Or could we defer parts of it, or is it now or later?

00:35:09 Speaker 14: I'm not aware of any pre-existing deferral agreements that are for a portion of the DCs, or how you would determine which portion is payable now versus in the future.

00:35:19 Speaker 14: That said, it's council does have the option to make its own decisions.

00:35:27 Speaker 13: Thank you.

00:35:28 Speaker 13: Again, through you, Deputy Mayor Greig.

00:35:30 Speaker 13: As far as your concerns about not getting the money eventually.

00:35:40 Speaker 13: Are those actually justified?

00:35:44 Speaker 13: Like, would we not have some sort of legal framework in place?

00:35:49 Speaker 13: I know in corporate services, one of the last meetings we had a report come through from the deputy treasurer, I believe it was on surety bonds.

00:35:59 Speaker 13: I'm not sure if that was related to development charges specifically, or whether that's just development.

00:36:05 Speaker 13: But that they could offer a surety bond in place of paying the development charges until they come through is that another option?

00:36:20 Speaker 14: Sorry, I'm going to try to answer that question in pieces.

00:36:23 Speaker 14: I wanted to be clear that the risks associated with this I don't tie specifically to this developer.

00:36:31 Speaker 14: However, if we approve this request, I'm not sure how that would be differentiated from any other future residential development that comes forward.

00:36:42 Speaker 14: The reason why the legislation that was in the original bill to defer all residential development charges to occupancy did not receive royal assent was because it was identified that collection could become an issue.

00:36:56 Speaker 14: Municipalities do not have the ability to deny occupancy for not paying DC, so we don't have that leverage.

00:37:03 Speaker 14: Given that, we'd be looking at other ways to ensure collection, and I'm certain that's why the province is taking its time with enacting that legislation.

00:37:13 Speaker 14: Requesting a financial security will likely be the way that they move that forward, whether that's a surety bond or a letter of credit.

00:37:21 Speaker 14: I'm sure is up for discussion.

00:37:25 Speaker 14: And yes, we do have other ways of collecting them.

00:37:31 Speaker 14: Certainly, we have the ability to transfer to taxes.

00:37:33 Speaker 14: However, that gets very complex around a development where the units are sold off individually.

00:37:40 Speaker 14: If it was the same owner and it was going to be the same owner for an extended period of time, that would be less risky.

00:37:47 Speaker 14: But when we're dealing with units that are for sale in the open market, the liability for paying any future amount that is transferred to taxes can get a little muddy.

00:37:56 Speaker 14: So it's not necessarily the best thing to have in our back pocket if we can't collect those fees at the time of occupancy, which is one of the things I referenced in the report.

00:38:08 Speaker 14: And again, it's not necessarily specific to this project.

00:38:12 Speaker 14: The risk that I've identified relates to the precedent that we would be setting.

00:38:21 Speaker 14: I'll wait to hear what the comments are from the other councillors, but I may have a subsequent motion.

00:38:27 Speaker 01: Okay, just before I go to Councillor Farmer, then next to Councillor Koepke, can you just answer a question for me, Kate?

00:38:35 Speaker 01: On July seventh, we passed a recommendation from staff on a deferral agreement for collecting DCs on a property just down the street on Second Avenue from this, and it was partitioned into six different payments,

00:38:50 Speaker 01: beginning at occupancy, and it was somewhat because of communications that we had made, I think, with the developer previous to changes or pending changes in provincial legislation.

00:39:03 Speaker 01: What's different here?

00:39:04 Speaker 01: You just spoke about not wanting to set a precedent, but in July we just exercised essentially that we've done six different payments with someone.

00:39:18 Speaker 14: To you, the difference is that specific property was purpose-built rental.

00:39:24 Speaker 14: This is not purpose-built rental.

00:39:25 Speaker 14: Previously, there was legislation specifically for purpose-built rental that required us to defer payments over six periods, and those would be supported with the deferral agreement which we entered into.

00:39:41 Speaker 14: There was no requirement at that time to do those deferral payments for sort of that broader definition of residential.

00:39:49 Speaker 14: It was just purpose-built rental.

00:39:53 Speaker 14: Interestingly, although that legislation was in place for a period of time, it has also been repealed.

00:39:59 Speaker 14: I assume, for similar reasons, that collection is a challenge for municipalities.

00:40:07 Speaker 14: Okay.

00:40:08 Speaker 14: Thanks, Councillor Farmer.

00:40:09 Speaker 14: Then Councillor Capri, next.

00:40:12 Speaker 02: Thank you.

00:40:13 Speaker 02: Through the Deputy Mayor, I'm going to move the recommendation that City Council direct staff to collect development charges in accordance with the Act.

00:40:21 Speaker 02: It is entirely within the rights of business people to angle for a deal—that's their job.

00:40:25 Speaker 02: I think it's our job as City Council to be fiscally responsible while meeting the needs of the community.

00:40:30 Speaker 02: And housing is absolutely in need, and we do need to support conditions that will address our housing affordability crisis.

00:40:38 Speaker 02: But this development is not for affordable housing.

00:40:41 Speaker 02: It's by a for-profit company, and it's on a development for which we already approved a reduction in housing density.

00:40:49 Speaker 02: The original development was going to have more units.

00:40:52 Speaker 02: We agreed with the plan presented by this developer to reduce that number of units, which also reduces the benefit to the housing market at large.

00:41:01 Speaker 02: That's cited as a reason that we should do a favour to this company.

00:41:05 Speaker 02: The services that we provide as a city and that make up the majority of our capital expenses cost money.

00:41:10 Speaker 02: Our asset management plan highlights the infrastructure deficit that we already have, and I agree that there will be situations when we want to make exceptions.

00:41:18 Speaker 02: I do not agree that exceptions should be made for for-profit developers and market housing.

00:41:23 Speaker 02: It's not fiscally responsible for the city to pass on a legislated ability to collect revenue.

00:41:31 Speaker 02: And at an appropriate time, we have limited sources of income.

00:41:36 Speaker 02: And if we do start deferring the collection development charges like that, and anything does happen, deferring what is a norm as set out in legislation,

00:41:47 Speaker 02: then we just ensure that the people who will pick up that tab, if for whatever reason, and not developer specific, if for whatever reason a development doesn't go through,

00:41:58 Speaker 02: then we just pass that back on to the residential tax base.

00:42:02 Speaker 02: Not sorry, not just residential.

00:42:03 Speaker 02: The property tax base will throw commercial and industrial a bone there too.

00:42:08 Speaker 02: They also pay taxes that help cover our infrastructure costs.

00:42:14 Speaker 02: But I don't think that that's fiscally responsible, and I don't think that this is a good opportunity to start making exceptions when this is not an exceptional development,

00:42:22 Speaker 02: and it's especially just not meeting the most acute needs that we do have for housing.

00:42:32 Speaker 02: Okay, so I have a motion on the floor.

00:42:33 Speaker 02: Councillor Kepu, then Councillor Kukreja.

00:42:36 Speaker 04: Thank you.

00:42:37 Speaker 04: First of all, I would disagree that it is not.

00:42:41 Speaker 04: It is meeting a market that is a demand.

00:42:45 Speaker 04: It's a market of individuals who are wanting to dispense with their home, which is too large for them, and move into a smaller place.

00:42:57 Speaker 04: So there is a market for that.

00:42:59 Speaker 04: A couple questions on: in the report, you identify a check being given for the full amount of development charges.

00:43:12 Speaker 04: You talk about a letter of credit, and your recommendation is to not defer these.

00:43:17 Speaker 04: What is the difference in the recommend or the comments you've made about holding a check to be cashed or a letter of credit to be cashed?

00:43:27 Speaker 04: Is that not deferral?

00:43:29 Speaker 14: Through you, Mr. Chair, we have the check made out for the full amount of DCs, signed and dated.

00:43:37 Speaker 14: We have not received a letter of credit.

00:43:40 Speaker 14: In the report, I'm suggesting that if Council were to defer these two occupancy, that potentially a letter of credit could be one of the requirements in order to do that.

00:43:50 Speaker 14: The reason why we accepted the check and haven't cashed it yet is for the short period when we received this request, it was too late.

00:44:00 Speaker 14: Well, it was past our last meeting, and we didn't have any council meetings in August.

00:44:05 Speaker 14: So, as an olive branch, I offered to bring this forward to Council because certainly it is Council's decision as to whether or not we defer these charges,

00:44:13 Speaker 14: but in order to allow the development to move forward, which it is, that we would hold that check uncashed.

00:44:20 Speaker 14: It is not uncommon.

00:44:21 Speaker 14: In fact, it is the common practice that we would issue the development charges as soon as we receive a check.

00:44:28 Speaker 14: We don't wait for that check to cash and clear before we would issue the building permit.

00:44:33 Speaker 14: Sorry, I should have said building permit there.

00:44:34 Speaker 14: We would issue a building permit upon receipt of a check.

00:44:37 Speaker 14: We don't wait for checks to be cashed and cleared before we issue the building permit.

00:44:42 Speaker 14: So yes, this is a few weeks longer than we would normally wait.

00:44:47 Speaker 14: But I, I felt, in my opinion, that that was not going to be a precedent-setting issue because of the fact that we didn't have any council meetings in the month of August.

00:45:01 Speaker 04: So just to clarify, you have a check, and it would be cashed when the building permits are issued.

00:45:08 Speaker 04: Is that correct?

00:45:11 Speaker 14: That cash will be that check will be cash subsequent to this meeting, pending the decision from Council.

00:45:19 Speaker 04: Okay, so if it's upon occupancy, when is the check stale dated?

00:45:30 Speaker 14: This check was not intended to be held until occupancy.

00:45:35 Speaker 14: Should that become the new term?

00:45:36 Speaker 14: Come the new terms, we would have to discuss with the developer how we're going to ensure payment at occupancy.

00:45:42 Speaker 14: Whether we cancel this check and receive a new one, accept a letter of credit, or some other form of payment.

00:45:49 Speaker 14: This it was not intended that that check would be the security that we hold.

00:45:54 Speaker 14: Should Council make the decision to defer these payments until occupancy?

00:45:59 Speaker 04: Okay, it's a little misleading in the report.

00:46:01 Speaker 04: That's all.

00:46:02 Speaker 04: I certainly would be in favour of a letter of credit, and I mean, developers have a challenge as well.

00:46:12 Speaker 04: They're trying to sell their units.

00:46:14 Speaker 04: They're trying to build the place.

00:46:16 Speaker 04: They're, I'm sure, on cash overflow or over extension, and they need a little bit of help in this.

00:46:25 Speaker 04: In my opinion, and this certainly is a property that we want to see move forward and not held up by for financial reasons.

00:46:33 Speaker 04: I believe that's why the last place didn't get developed.

00:46:37 Speaker 04: So I'm certainly not in favour of the motion on the floor, and would certainly like to see this proceed and get that place built and occupied.

00:46:50 Speaker 04: Thank you, Councillor Craigen.

00:46:51 Speaker 04: Next.

00:46:53 Speaker 15: Thank you, through you, Chair.

00:46:55 Speaker 15: Just a quick question to the Director.

00:46:58 Speaker 15: Initially, when the building first started, its mean.

00:47:03 Speaker 15: I think the recommendation was in two thousand and eighteen, and then Council approved it in two thousand and nineteen,

00:47:10 Speaker 15: and then for the longest time the building just sat there waiting for the power of sale to happen.

00:47:16 Speaker 15: Right.

00:47:24 Speaker 16: Sorry, that that is correct.

00:47:25 Speaker 16: In a nutshell, a building permit was issued, construction commenced, and then it stalled, and the development went in.

00:47:30 Speaker 16: And the development went into receivership.

00:47:33 Speaker 17: And if I remember correctly, during my term of Council, we did have a consistent communication from the members of the public raising safety concerns about the building, about the construction material just left it,

00:47:47 Speaker 17: about the site not being redeveloped, and finally in two thousand and twenty-four, this developer took over and is trying to remap the place.

00:47:56 Speaker 17: And from what I understand from this report is he's not asked.

00:47:58 Speaker 17: His report is he's not asking to not pay the development charges.

00:48:04 Speaker 17: He is just asking for the deferral until occupancy, right?

00:48:13 Speaker 17: So, other than the major concerns that we are setting a precedent, especially in this case, because when the building has been sitting idle for such a long period of time, and totally,

00:48:24 Speaker 17: I feel an exception can be made at this point in time.

00:48:28 Speaker 17: Could you please elabourate on some of the material, financial, and administrative actual risks associated if we go this route?

00:48:41 Speaker 14: Through you, Mr. Chair.

00:48:42 Speaker 14: Just to clarify again, it is not specific to this developer necessarily that I'm attaching these risks.

00:48:49 Speaker 14: My concern is that if we set this precedent, that any future residential development may want the same treatment, and I can't necessarily say, not knowing who is coming forward,

00:49:01 Speaker 14: what those future risks will be associated with them.

00:49:05 Speaker 14: We're not tying this decision to any credit risks or anything like that,

00:49:09 Speaker 14: and so it potentially could be wide open to open the door to anyone else to come forward where there may be issues about payment risk or collection at the time of occupancy.

00:49:26 Speaker 17: Historically, have we had any other buildings in a similar situation, which have not been developed by a particular developer, and they just sat there, and then someone else took over and created the residential units?

00:49:42 Speaker 14: Through you, Mr. Chair, we may or may not have.

00:49:45 Speaker 14: The fact that the building sat vacant for a period of time isn't a factor in my recommendation here tonight.

00:49:57 Speaker 14: Councillor Merton.

00:49:59 Speaker 14: Excuse me, through you, Chair.

00:50:03 Speaker 07: We know that housing and the housing crisis involves a variety of solutions and approaches.

00:50:12 Speaker 07: It's a continuum of housing.

00:50:15 Speaker 07: There is no doubt that housing supply is an important issue.

00:50:20 Speaker 07: So the point raised is certainly important.

00:50:25 Speaker 07: Strong mayor powers were implemented to build more houses.

00:50:31 Speaker 07: However, here in Owen Sound, as of April 2025, and I thank the Director of Community Services in the Planning Department for providing this information for another purpose that I required.

00:50:45 Speaker 07: We do have housing stock over the next four years that will come to us.

00:50:50 Speaker 07: that are in various stages of process.

00:50:54 Speaker 07: It is expected that 3,025 units will be developed, and they are in various stages of approval at this current point in time.

00:51:05 Speaker 07: I want to point out that, yes, being able to have people migrate through the system, whether they're downsizing or up-sizing or just getting a roof over their heads,

00:51:19 Speaker 07: we have to look at all of those stages.

00:51:22 Speaker 07: These are for-profit developers.

00:51:26 Speaker 07: Here in Owen Sound, we have an issue around affordable housing and the percentage that is available currently, as we speak.

00:51:37 Speaker 07: We have not established a target for all of the new units on how many affordable units we need, based on the median income of those who live in our city.

00:51:51 Speaker 07: Right now, based on the information that was provided to me, of 891 units built since 2018, only 17% of all that housing has been affordable.

00:52:08 Speaker 07: Our challenge here is the gap in the missing middle-income and the affordable range.

00:52:16 Speaker 07: We know there are going to be units available in the for-profit, but it is the affordability range.

00:52:23 Speaker 07: Currently, based on the Grey County data, the total active applications for housing, as of June, are 2,441.

00:52:36 Speaker 07: So I understand the rationale behind the conversation around development.

00:52:43 Speaker 07: I'm thinking, however, that we need to apply the lens towards the need that's most significant, most urgent, and that is important for the sustainability of our community through retail, healthcare providers,

00:52:58 Speaker 07: and those who are going to provide the middle, those jobs.

00:53:03 Speaker 07: So, employment, housing, and filling the missing middle gap is going to be critical.

00:53:08 Speaker 08: I'm going to jump in here and say that we're wandering quite sideways from the motion that's on the floor, that's representative and an outcome of the report.

00:53:17 Speaker 08: Is there anything further that you'd like to comment on, Councillor Hamley?

00:53:22 Speaker 08: I'll check in with you.

00:53:22 Speaker 08: You're online.

00:53:26 Speaker 08: Yeah.

00:53:27 Speaker 08: Thank you, Deputy.

00:53:28 Speaker 03: So I think I'll support the motion, and I think the reason I'm going to support the motion is, in 2024, this project came to us, and the developer asked to waive the development charges.

00:53:43 Speaker 03: I don't really view this request all that much different from the previous one, and I haven't really changed my mind since that point.

00:53:52 Speaker 03: You know, I think whether it's whether we're waiving them or whether we're deferring them, every dollar that we don't collect in DCs ultimately our ratepayers are going to have to foot the bill,

00:54:03 Speaker 03: even if it's just delayed.

00:54:05 Speaker 03: Like our ratepayers are going to have to pay that.

00:54:07 Speaker 03: So I'm going to support the motion.

00:54:08 Speaker 03: Supports the motion.

00:54:11 Speaker 01: Okay, thanks, Councillor.

00:54:13 Speaker 01: I think I'd like to vacate the chair and place acting chair Burton in place here.

00:54:23 Speaker 01: I'd like to speak to this.

00:54:24 Speaker 01: I have some fairly strong feelings.

00:54:37 Speaker 01: Oh, Deputy Mayor Craig, you have comments too.

00:54:37 Speaker 01: Mr. Craig, you have comments you wish to add.

00:54:40 Speaker 01: Thank you.

00:54:41 Speaker 01: I just I'm afraid that some of our conversation here is not about the collection of the DCs.

00:54:48 Speaker 01: We've decided as a council that we are going to collect the development charges.

00:54:52 Speaker 01: This is an ask just to defer them, and I have the position of looking at this from a construction perspective.

00:54:59 Speaker 01: This is a cash flow issue, and this is something that a lot of developers go through.

00:55:06 Speaker 01: I don't think it's specific to the one developer who has done a lot of building in the City of Owen Sound in the last several years.

00:55:13 Speaker 01: Completed projects, completed projects with local labour, which is a benefit to everyone.

00:55:23 Speaker 01: There's a point here where the province is going to have to look at the cost of building housing, and it doesn't matter what type of housing it is.

00:55:32 Speaker 01: But the best thing you can do to ruin your pricing structure or make things unaffordable is to remove all the competition from the marketplace.

00:55:40 Speaker 01: And the housing market literally has done that with municipalities across Ontario, looking to extract so much money from developers before they even have a shovel in the ground.

00:55:53 Speaker 01: It's: before you sell units, here's what you owe us.

00:55:58 Speaker 01: And here's a developer now that has two projects that are in close proximity, who's trying to restore this building that's been an eyesore?

00:56:07 Speaker 01: We, as the council, have decided that we are going to collect the DCs.

00:56:11 Speaker 01: I'm understanding, or certainly willing, to consider that we work harder as a city to come up with a structure that we can defer the collection of these DCs.

00:56:25 Speaker 01: We're going to get the monies.

00:56:28 Speaker 01: The developer is just asking, can I forward those monies down the road?

00:56:31 Speaker 01: And those monies down the road, and I certainly think that there is a mechanism that we can construct that will ensure and protect the taxpayers of Wisconsin.

00:56:40 Speaker 01: We will get that money.

00:56:41 Speaker 01: The flip side of DCs is, if you have no growth, it doesn't matter what you're looking to build or pay off.

00:56:48 Speaker 01: You've got no money, so the best thing you can have is some developer and some development and keep working towards this.

00:56:55 Speaker 01: And I'm certainly in favour.

00:56:56 Speaker 01: I'm not in favour of the motion on the floor.

00:56:59 Speaker 01: I am in favour of us being more aggressive as a council, and working with staff and the developer to come up with a solution here that frees up capital, because that's essentially what this is.

00:57:12 Speaker 01: Just the condo project in Toronto I think they called it The One is going to be the highest skyscraper in Ontario in Canada.

00:57:21 Speaker 01: I think it went bankrupt two times, if not three times.

00:57:25 Speaker 01: So I'm more sympathetic to the cash flow position here, and certainly willing to support a motion that directs staff to extend the collection of these to the time when occupancy exists.

00:57:45 Speaker 01: Thank you.

00:57:45 Speaker 01: Would you like to resume the chair?

00:57:55 Speaker 01: If you're willing to vacate, I am willing to vacate.

00:57:58 Speaker 01: If you'd like to assume.

00:57:59 Speaker 01: Thank you for your comments, Councillor Farmer.

00:58:08 Speaker 01: You made the motion, so I'll go back to you before calling the vote.

00:58:14 Speaker 01: Thank you, through the Deputy Mayor.

00:58:17 Speaker 18: I will first ask for a recorded vote, but also I'll say it is not the city's responsibility to ensure that every developer makes a timely profit,

00:58:25 Speaker 18: nor is it our responsibility for managing their cash flow or ensuring good business practices.

00:58:30 Speaker 18: There are more than 3,000 housing units in development in the pipeline in Owen Sound by small local developers, yes, but also by billion-dollar development corporations.

00:58:39 Speaker 18: And if we make this exception tonight, we open the door for the largest developers to also request similar exceptions,

00:58:46 Speaker 18: which benefits their shareholders but not the taxpayers of Owen Sound or those in need of housing locally.

00:58:52 Speaker 18: We cannot afford to subsidize every developer by favouring their cash flow at the expense of the cash flow of the corporation of the City of Owen Sound, and if we open this door now,

00:59:02 Speaker 18: we don't get to control who goes through it.

00:59:05 Speaker 18: If there are other ideas to change our development charge process, I think we should receive those in the due process of our procedures and debate that.

00:59:16 Speaker 18: But to have a single developer continually come back and ask for favours from council that do not in fact meet the needs of the people who are the neediest in terms of housing and sound.

00:59:30 Speaker 18: I think we're wasting our limited opportunity, and I look forward to voting.

00:59:38 Speaker 19: First, I'll call the motion on the floor.

00:59:46 Speaker 19: I've gone around the table.

00:59:48 Speaker 19: Okay, I'll grant the latitude to Councillor Miller.

00:59:51 Speaker 19: Grant the latitude to Councillor Millobo because that is, in fact, true.

00:59:54 Speaker 19: So go ahead, Councillor Millobo.

00:59:56 Speaker 19: Before I will go to the clerk for the recorded vote.

00:59:59 Speaker 19: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Greig.

01:00:03 Speaker 13: We are not talking about not getting the development charges.

01:00:06 Speaker 13: That is not a thing.

01:00:07 Speaker 13: We have approved that we are getting these development charges.

01:00:09 Speaker 13: They asked for us to waive them.

01:00:11 Speaker 13: We said no. We are getting the development charges, whether it's now or whether it's later.

01:00:16 Speaker 13: And I trust that our staff will do in their due diligence to get some sort of letter of credit or surety bond or something to make sure that we get these development charges when the

01:00:32 Speaker 13: time of occupancy comes.

01:00:34 Speaker 13: And I think it's very bad practice to be pitting developer against developer and housing against housing, whether it's you know housing for this sector or this sector.

01:00:46 Speaker 13: We have a housing shortage in this municipality and across this country, and the only way to solve it, the affordability crisis, is to build more housing.

01:00:56 Speaker 13: All housing, doesn't matter what kind of housing it is.

01:00:59 Speaker 13: All of it will, in the end, help to bring down the affordability of housing because once you have enough to meet the market demand, and even if you have an excess in housing,

01:01:12 Speaker 13: then prices should shift, according to that.

01:01:15 Speaker 13: So I think it's bad practice to say, you know, speak badly about developers and pit them against each other, whether they're billion-dollar developers or small local developers.

01:01:26 Speaker 13: We welcome all of them.

01:01:27 Speaker 13: I think this council and the previous council has done a very good job to make it very well known that this city wants to be partners with development.

01:01:36 Speaker 13: We are open for business and we want to work with you.

01:01:38 Speaker 13: So I think that this is an opportunity for us to maybe set a precedent.

01:01:45 Speaker 13: But I think that's okay if it's meeting the needs of the city, which I feel like this would.

01:01:52 Speaker 13: Okay.

01:01:52 Speaker 13: Now I'm going to go to the clerk to call the vote.

01:01:58 Speaker 13: Councillor Farmer.

01:02:01 Speaker 13: In favour.

01:02:03 Speaker 13: Councillor Hamley.

01:02:07 Speaker 13: In favour.

01:02:07 Speaker 13: Councillor Koepke.

01:02:09 Speaker 13: Opposed.

01:02:11 Speaker 13: Councillor Cook.

01:02:14 Speaker 13: Councillor Kukreja, opposed.

01:02:18 Speaker 13: Councillor Merton, in favour.

01:02:23 Speaker 13: Councillor Middlebro, opposed.

01:02:28 Speaker 13: Deputy Mayor Greig, opposed.

01:02:33 Speaker 20: The resolution is defeated with three in favour and four opposed.

01:02:38 Speaker 20: Now go to Councillor Koepke.

01:02:41 Speaker 04: The motion would be that, in consideration of staff report CR-25-1017 respecting development charges deferral request for Bayshore Terrace,

01:02:52 Speaker 04: City Council direct staff to work with the developer and create a letter of credit that would be redeemable upon occupancy.

01:03:06 Speaker 19: And just before going to council, I'm just going to go to staff to respond just to the wording there, perhaps.

01:03:12 Speaker 19: Yeah.

01:03:12 Speaker 11: City Manager, through you, wording it should probably recommend into a deferral agreement with the appropriate securities.

01:03:25 Speaker 19: You're amenable to that wording, okay?

01:03:28 Speaker 19: And I'll just give the Clerk the opportunity to put it properly in writing and to execute those thoughts.

01:03:41 Speaker 19: You're good.

01:03:41 Speaker 19: Okay.

01:03:42 Speaker 19: Any comments, questions before calling that vote, Councillor Merton?

01:03:48 Speaker 07: Through you, Deputy Mayor.

01:03:50 Speaker 07: Earlier, we had a comment about trusting the staff to make sure that the information is brought forward, basically to protect us.

01:04:01 Speaker 07: I'm curious because within the staff recommendation, they've made it very clear that they're not recommending that, if you read through it, they've already approved a temporary delay, but they're not recommending the deferral.

01:04:20 Speaker 07: So, by approving and asking for that action, we are basically saying that the expert information provided to us is something we wish to change and direct back to staff on the financial responsibility and management,

01:04:41 Speaker 07: and for me the challenge is when staff present a report based on their expertise and they're making a recommendation based on risk assessment, and legislation, and precedent setting.

01:04:58 Speaker 07: It concerns me.

01:05:00 Speaker 07: I'm wondering if staff can provide some reflection on this motion that's before us in how it addresses precedent setting, risk, and fiscal accountability.

01:05:14 Speaker 19: I'll go to staff for a brief comment.

01:05:18 Speaker 19: A lot of that has already been spoken to in the preamble of the report.

01:05:22 Speaker 19: But go ahead, Kate.

01:05:23 Speaker 14: I just note that if there is a precedent set here, which there may be,

01:05:27 Speaker 14: there is still a requirement that any other requests for deferral come through to council and ultimately it is council's decision in every single instance, as it is not under our bylaw to approve those.

01:05:42 Speaker 14: And so, ultimately, it will be up to council when future requests come forward as to whether or not you're going to approve any future deferrals.

01:05:52 Speaker 14: Okay, not seeing any other questions.

01:05:54 Speaker 14: Oh, Councillor Koepke, just one final comment.

01:05:59 Speaker 04: I think it's already been said.

01:06:00 Speaker 04: It's not like we're not collecting development charges; we already have a check sitting here that the developer expected we would be cashing.

01:06:09 Speaker 04: We are just deferring them until occupancy to assist with this development moving forward in a faster pace.

01:06:20 Speaker 04: Okay, thank you.

01:06:21 Speaker 04: Oh, sorry, I've cut you off.

01:06:23 Speaker 04: Go back.

01:06:24 Speaker 04: Go ahead.

01:06:24 Speaker 04: Go ahead.

01:06:25 Speaker 04: And I would request a recorded vote.

01:06:29 Speaker 04: Okay, Councillor Farmer, through the chair, and a question to staff.

01:06:36 Speaker 21: My understanding is that had we made a similar arrangement with the previous owner and original intended developer of this property, that we would not have been paid those development charges.

01:06:49 Speaker 21: In that case, is that correct?

01:06:53 Speaker 19: Originally, council at the time chose not to put development charges on the original proposal; it was that council placed development charges on it at the last time it came to council.

01:07:07 Speaker 19: But Kate, if you want to speak to that a little further, I believe the history of the property is in the report and the previous reports that are linked.

01:07:19 Speaker 14: Several bylaws ago, this council had a broad exemption for DCS from all residential development, and at the time when this development first started, it had that exemption under that broad wave of DCS.

01:07:33 Speaker 14: It wasn't completed in that bylaw; however, requested a grandfathering clause that if it was completed within a certain amount of time, that we would continue to offer that broad deferral,

01:07:49 Speaker 14: which council did approve at the time.

01:07:51 Speaker 14: However, again, that milestone was not met.

01:07:53 Speaker 14: So certainly, there were some considerations historically with the original development that waived DCS, but those timelines long since elapsed, and we are looking at the current application of DCS under our current bylaw.

01:08:11 Speaker 14: Okay, and I will defer to the Clerk for requesting the vote.

01:08:20 Speaker 14: Councillor Farmer opposed.

01:08:24 Speaker 14: Councillor Hamley opposed.

01:08:27 Speaker 14: Councillor Koepke in favour.

01:08:31 Speaker 14: Councillor Kukreja in favour.

01:08:39 Speaker 14: Councillor Merton opposed.

01:08:43 Speaker 14: Councillor Middlebro' in favour.

01:08:47 Speaker 14: Deputy Mayor Greig in favour.

01:08:51 Speaker 20: The resolution carries with four in favour and three opposed.

01:08:57 Speaker 22: Okay, thank you, Brianna, and to staff for that report.

01:09:05 Speaker 22: Next item is report 10-B, which is regarding the Julie MacArthur roof rehabilitation.

01:09:13 Speaker 22: So I think to who's speaking to this Director of Community Services or oh okay, the Manager Brady Carberts here to speak to that.

01:09:21 Speaker 22: Welcome.

01:09:21 Speaker 22: Herbert's here to speak to that.

01:09:22 Speaker 22: Welcome, Brady.

01:09:24 Speaker 23: Good evening, Deputy Chair and members of Council.

01:09:28 Speaker 23: As you are aware, in May, City Council approved the tender award for the Julie MacArthur Regional Recreational Centre rehabilitation, or sorry, roof rehabilitation, to Spinton Roofing.

01:09:39 Speaker 23: At that time, the total project budget was increased from eight hundred fifty thousand to nine hundred twenty-one thousand dollars to cover higher than expected construction costs and the required construction administration and inspection costs.

01:09:50 Speaker 23: With the additional seventy thousand coming from the Canada Community Building Fund or CCBF reserve.

01:09:57 Speaker 23: Construction commenced in July, and the roof remediation component of the project is currently underway, which will be followed up by the recoating of the entire roof surface.

01:10:06 Speaker 23: Staff have prepared this report to seek council approval for an additional three hundred fifty thousand dollars to cover unforeseen repairs that have been discovered during construction, unknown conditions to date that we can confirm.

01:10:19 Speaker 23: Is that we required an additional forty thousand dollars for additional wet insulation for areas that were identified in the 2025 infrared scan.

01:10:28 Speaker 23: These conditions were aware of staff based on a 2017 infrared scan, and were included in the original contingency allotment issued by staff.

01:10:39 Speaker 23: We are also seeking an additional one hundred and ten thousand dollars for deteriorated roof materials above the pool deck that were not detectable via the scan.

01:10:46 Speaker 23: So these materials were underneath the insulation, and they were not currently wet.

01:10:51 Speaker 23: So they have been wet at some point and have effectively started to crumble.

01:10:54 Speaker 23: So that's why they were not able to be detected.

01:10:56 Speaker 23: So those materials now need to be removed, replaced, and then the insulation and then the roof surface put on over top.

01:11:04 Speaker 23: Also during this construction, we've identified some leaks and concerns around transition walls, perimetre walls, and at the roof access stairwell.

01:11:13 Speaker 23: Basically, these are where the roof has terminated and butted up to another structure, to a wall, to the precast stairwell structure,

01:11:23 Speaker 23: and there has been water that's infiltrated in behind there over the course since the building was constructed.

01:11:29 Speaker 23: There's also some of the concerns is that it's actually coming up through the transitions, particularly on the front of the building or through the pool deck,

01:11:36 Speaker 23: and that's why we're not exactly sure what the amount is right now because staff and the consultant are continuing to evaluate this.

01:11:43 Speaker 23: We've brought this to council in consultation with our consultant on what the estimated repair for these transition wall repairs will be,

01:11:51 Speaker 23: including their time for to design the desired repair and to do additional contract administration and inspection for it.

01:11:58 Speaker 23: And we've deemed that to be approximately two hundred thousand dollars for these repairs.

01:12:03 Speaker 23: We've brought it to council tonight because if we wait until a subsequent council meeting, we run the risk of the contractor having to demobilize offsite while we deal with this,

01:12:12 Speaker 23: and it pushes the completion of the roof back outside of the period where we can spray the roof coating on.

01:12:17 Speaker 23: So we're coming with that action tonight.

01:12:20 Speaker 23: The allowances aren't confirmed to the contractor; they're still to be expended at the discretion of the city and in consultation with our consultant.

01:12:29 Speaker 23: This will also allow us to keep that original contingency allowance of fifty thousand dollars to address any other items that may come up during construction.

01:12:39 Speaker 23: If I had have come with a number that was too low of a value tonight, I would have to come back again because, as the purchasing agent,

01:12:45 Speaker 23: we can only authorise an additional one hundred thousand dollars worth of work at a time without coming back to council.

01:12:50 Speaker 23: So I'm doing this in order to make sure that we have sufficient contingency, but we can also allow the project to be completed in a timely fashion.

01:12:58 Speaker 23: We're continuing to work with the YMCA on the impacts of these unforeseen conditions.

01:13:04 Speaker 23: Right now, it is anticipating to at least extend the contract an additional eight days, but we suspect that as we get into the transition wall repairs, we'll have to add further days to the project.

01:13:14 Speaker 23: But the contractor and our consultant are committed to keeping this project moving forward, so that we can put the roof surface material down within the required temperature ranges.

01:13:25 Speaker 23: With that, I'm happy to take any questions from council.

01:13:30 Speaker 18: Councillor Farmer, and then Councillor Koepke next.

01:13:34 Speaker 18: Thank you to the Deputy Mayor.

01:13:35 Speaker 18: I'm happy to move the recommendations in the report.

01:13:38 Speaker 18: I would ask for staff.

01:13:41 Speaker 18: I've heard some questions around if the scope of this work is expanding in part due to deterioration caused by the poor quality of the original roof for installation of that roof initially.

01:13:54 Speaker 18: Would staff be able to remind us and the public why this is not a case of we can just go back and say, hey,

01:14:02 Speaker 18: we've had to spend a lot of money because someone didn't do this right the first time?

01:14:07 Speaker 23: Just for that context, through the Deputy Mayor to you, Councillor Farmer.

01:14:14 Speaker 23: I'm just speaking from kind of my previous experience on similar projects, not being here during the time of the tender or the construction of this building.

01:14:24 Speaker 23: But the project would have had likely a two-year workmanship warranty on it through the construction documents at that time.

01:14:32 Speaker 23: There was also a roof-related warranty, one for the flat roof and one for the steel roof.

01:14:38 Speaker 23: The flat roof warranty was for a period of ten years, so we've elapsed that time.

01:14:44 Speaker 23: It's my understanding that shortly after the building was constructed, the city tried to pursue a warranty claim against the contractor and had some luck.

01:14:54 Speaker 23: But it sounds as if we accepted some of the repairs, and then I believe in 2017 we tried another warranty claim through the manufacturer and were unsuccessful due to wording within the warranty claim,

01:15:05 Speaker 23: so we're unable to make that now or go back after the general contractor.

01:15:13 Speaker 18: And through the Deputy Mayor to follow up question.

01:15:15 Speaker 18: So it sounds like staff do have a process to make sure that we're watching folks more closely going forward.

01:15:21 Speaker 18: Is that correct, or what else should we know to make sure we're not in similar situations in the future?

01:15:28 Speaker 23: Through the Deputy Mayor to you, Councillor Farmer.

01:15:30 Speaker 23: Once again, I can't speak to the differences in the construction back in 2010 to 2012, but for this project, we do have increased our inspection on site.

01:15:42 Speaker 23: We are there daily and at some points multiple times through the day.

01:15:46 Speaker 23: We have our own in-house staff member being the initial point of contact, and then we have our third-party consultant that is on call and comes up at more milestone-based or as problems arise.

01:15:56 Speaker 23: So we're saving the city cost by having our own staff member going there, taking pictures, making the phone calls back to the office, and working with the contractor to resolve those issues,

01:16:05 Speaker 23: and then our consultant coming out of Kitchener only has to come up a couple times of the week to support us on that.

01:16:11 Speaker 23: So we are there, and our project coordinator is very detailed and watching every step as close as he can.

01:16:19 Speaker 01: Okay.

01:16:20 Speaker 01: Just before I go, Councillor Koepke, you don't want to be too happy moving that recommendation because there's a lot of bad news in there.

01:16:25 Speaker 01: It's about forty percent over budget, so maybe you will remove the recommendation.

01:16:30 Speaker 01: We don't want to be happy to move that recommendation.

01:16:32 Speaker 01: Perhaps, Councillor Koepke.

01:16:37 Speaker 04: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Greig.

01:16:39 Speaker 04: I wonder if you could highlight for those in the room, members of the public watching, and the media what it says in the financial implications.

01:16:50 Speaker 23: Through Deputy Mayor to Councillor Koepke, the $350,000 that is being requested tonight would come from the Canada Community Building Fund, or RCCBF, or former Federal Gas Tax Reserve.

01:17:02 Speaker 23: So there is no immediate implication to this year's budget or our capital reserve.

01:17:08 Speaker 23: We are permitted to use this funding, and the funds are available within that reserve.

01:17:13 Speaker 23: More importantly, by drawing these additional funds, it does not impact any of the projects that are forecasted for the next five years that also use this funding.

01:17:24 Speaker 23: Councillor Minow.

01:17:26 Speaker 13: Thank you.

01:17:26 Speaker 13: Through you, Deputy Mayor Greig.

01:17:28 Speaker 13: The roof that is going on now.

01:17:31 Speaker 13: What kind of a warranty do we have on this one?

01:17:34 Speaker 13: Because I'm assuming the very first roof was also supposed to have a life of twenty years with a ten-year warranty, and here we are, year twelve, thirteen, and it's gone.

01:17:44 Speaker 13: So what is the warranty on the new roof?

01:17:48 Speaker 23: Through you, Deputy Mayor, to Councillor Middlebro'.

01:17:50 Speaker 23: I'm not sure what the desired lifespan of the roof system was at the time of construction, but it's not unreasonable to think that it would have at least a twenty-year lifespan.

01:18:02 Speaker 23: Typically, there's a difference of about ten to fifteen years between a warranty and the lifespan.

01:18:07 Speaker 23: That's what we're on a lot of the roofs right now.

01:18:10 Speaker 23: We put a twenty-year warranty, and we're typically seeing performance up to thirty years on those structures.

01:18:16 Speaker 23: The roof is not being replaced in this case, and I know we identified this during the tender process.

01:18:21 Speaker 23: In order to save the cost from removing it.

01:18:24 Speaker 23: What we are doing is repairing the insulation in the affected section or sections, putting a new TPO roof on top of those sections,

01:18:30 Speaker 23: and then recoating it with a material that will be able to withstand the elements.

01:18:36 Speaker 23: And the warranty that we are being provided, provided that the project is completed in accordance with the tender specifications, is for twenty years.

01:18:46 Speaker 13: Thank you.

01:18:47 Speaker 13: Do we have a practice as a city that when we have such a structure that is multi-million dollar type item, and it does have a warranty,

01:18:59 Speaker 13: that we go in and inspect it when we know that the warranty is coming due to see if there's anything wrong at that time that we could get covered under the warranty?

01:19:10 Speaker 23: Yes, to the Deputy Mayor, to you, Councillor Middlebro'.

01:19:12 Speaker 23: Yes, the warranties that we receive are very detailed with what the requirements are of the city, and we need to document what we do in order to maintain that eligibility.

01:19:22 Speaker 23: We have I'm guessing probably close to a dozen different roofing systems, and they all have different requirements.

01:19:28 Speaker 23: But generally, quarterly staff will go and do an inspection on the roof, check the roof drains, and look for growth.

01:19:35 Speaker 23: We also have a roofing consultant that the city retained sometime in the 2015 range that comes up and does an annual inspection as well,

01:19:43 Speaker 23: and will document deficiencies and give us an action plan for maintenance-related items or for treatments that we need to do in order to maintain our warranties moving forward.

01:19:52 Speaker 23: So we meet with that consultant twice a year to make sure that we're doing everything that's under their programmemememememememememememe and under their warranties,

01:20:00 Speaker 23: and then it's left to staff to kind of follow up on the different warranties.

01:20:03 Speaker 23: But more importantly, we do make sure that we're on those roofs at least quarterly.

01:20:10 Speaker 01: Okay.

01:20:10 Speaker 01: Not seeing any other questions from council.

01:20:12 Speaker 01: I do have one question for you, Brady.

01:20:13 Speaker 01: We can be confident that they're in.

01:20:16 Speaker 01: Confident that there, none of the insulation issues are resulting from condensation and ventilation issues within the pool part.

01:20:25 Speaker 01: Is it safe to say?

01:20:26 Speaker 01: It's everything's from the top down; leakage.

01:20:28 Speaker 01: There are no issues with inadequate ventilation at all and condensation.

01:20:35 Speaker 01: Just wanted to hear from you on that.

01:20:37 Speaker 23: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Greig.

01:20:39 Speaker 23: To be honest, I'm not confident in saying that at this time.

01:20:42 Speaker 23: We are working with the roofing consultant to look at potential sources of some of these transition wall leaks,

01:20:48 Speaker 23: and I've asked them to prepare a technical memo that we can either share with the tenant of the building or deal with for future operational concerns.

01:20:58 Speaker 23: Okay, thanks.

01:20:59 Speaker 23: I'm glad you're aware of that.

01:21:02 Speaker 01: Not seeing any other questions or comments.

01:21:04 Speaker 01: All those in favour of that motion, it's been moved, and that is carried unanimously.

01:21:09 Speaker 01: Thank you very much, Brady.

01:21:12 Speaker 01: Item.

01:21:13 Speaker 01: Next item is Item 10C, the 2026 Board and Committee Bylaw Housekeeping Report.

01:21:20 Speaker 01: To you, Brianna.

01:21:23 Speaker 20: Through you, Deputy Mayor.

01:21:25 Speaker 20: Each year, City Council revisits the Board and Committee Bylaw to ensure its structure continues to serve the needs of the city.

01:21:31 Speaker 20: As part of that process, City Council considers public appointments to boards and committees based on expiring terms of service and vacancies.

01:21:39 Speaker 20: A future report reviewing the committee structure will be brought forward to City Council in November.

01:21:44 Speaker 20: In the meantime, this report maintains the current structure to ensure continuity until a new framework is implemented following the 2026 municipal election.

01:21:52 Speaker 20: There are a couple of additional items I would like to highlight in the report.

01:21:56 Speaker 20: First, the city was notified by legal counsel from the OSHaRE Municipal Nonprofit Housing Corporation, which has been confirmed by the city solicitor,

01:22:05 Speaker 20: that the coming into force of the Not for Profit Corporations Act requires the not-for-profit housing corporation to update its letters patent, bylaws, and related documents that make it independent of the city.

01:22:17 Speaker 20: In order to comply with the new legislation, effective February 1, 2026, City Council will no longer appoint a council representative to the Owen Sound Municipal Nonprofit Housing Corporation Board,

01:22:28 Speaker 20: nor will it have authority to approve public board members.

01:22:30 Speaker 20: Although the Owen Sound Municipal Nonprofit Housing Corporation and the Owen Sound Housing Company have the same board members, they are legally separate entities and operate as distinct boards.

01:22:41 Speaker 20: At this time, there are no changes planned for the On Sound Housing Company.

01:22:45 Speaker 20: The second item I will highlight is that since the drafting of this report, there's been a resignation from a city committee, so this vacancy will be included in the call for new members.

01:22:54 Speaker 20: Recruitment for new members will begin October 7th.

01:22:57 Speaker 20: The recommendation in the report is that City Council directs staff to undertake the 2026 board and committee recruitment processes outlined in the report.

01:23:06 Speaker 20: Thank you, Brianna, and to Councillor Farmer, through the Deputy Mayor and staff.

01:23:13 Speaker 02: I don't totally understand how, if we're maintaining authority over one board and losing authority over the other, how that works.

01:23:24 Speaker 02: Are we looking at a future where those boards are no longer the same groups of people, or because we get to approve one of the boards that is also the other board,

01:23:34 Speaker 02: just de facto we maintain that control?

01:23:37 Speaker 02: What does that look like?

01:23:42 Speaker 08: Good question.

01:23:43 Speaker 08: I think there's always been lots of interest in terms of how the housing company municipal non-profit is structured.

01:23:49 Speaker 08: So, who on staff wants to take a Brianna?

01:23:52 Speaker 08: Okay, to you.

01:23:55 Speaker 20: Through you, Deputy Mayor Greig, to Councillor Farmer.

01:23:57 Speaker 20: Thank you for the question.

01:23:59 Speaker 20: Definitely, the boards could have a different composition because Council still has authority over that one board, which is the Owen Sound Housing Company,

01:24:08 Speaker 20: so we will receive applicants for any vacancies on the housing company board when the time arises.

01:24:22 Speaker 21: Through the Deputy Mayor, on a separate point, I'm curious: as we receive applications, we've sometimes seen in the past applications that are partial that don't include, as we ask for,

01:24:35 Speaker 21: the form and a resume that include only one or the other, or something's not filled out.

01:24:39 Speaker 21: Is there a mechanism for staff to filter applications so that Council only receives completed applications?

01:24:47 Speaker 21: Assuming that if we're looking for folks to thoughtfully consider the business of the city, being able to thoughtfully complete an application form could be a good initial test of that.

01:24:57 Speaker 21: Would we have a mechanism for that, or would that require Council direction by way of a motion?

01:25:06 Speaker 20: Through Deputy Mayor Greig, although we request that people submit both the application and the resume, if they don't,

01:25:14 Speaker 20: our practice has been to provide what we have been given to Council so that Council can make the decision on whether they have adequate information or not.

01:25:23 Speaker 20: If that's something Council no longer requests for us to do, then a motion would be needed.

01:25:31 Speaker 18: Support it through the Deputy Mayor.

01:25:38 Speaker 18: Oh, procedurally, would we need to?

01:25:40 Speaker 18: If I wanted to amend the recommendations to include that, would that be a separate motion or to move the current report with that as an amendment?

01:25:49 Speaker 18: I would like to make a motion to that effect, but I'm interested in doing that in the least complicated way possible.

01:25:57 Speaker 01: How about I just give you a moment to think about it?

01:25:58 Speaker 01: I'll go to other councillors.

01:26:00 Speaker 01: With any questions on the report, and I'll circle back to you, Councillor.

01:26:03 Speaker 01: Councillor Koepke.

01:26:05 Speaker 01: Thank you.

01:26:06 Speaker 04: First of all, to a point that Councillor Farmer made, do staff contact the individual and say you didn't complete this portion or that portion, or just accept what they provide us?

01:26:24 Speaker 20: Through you, Your Worship.

01:26:26 Speaker 20: If there's time, we certainly would ask if they will provide us with that resume.

01:26:31 Speaker 20: If it's not attached, sometimes it's right down to the wire, so there's not enough time to get it on that council agenda.

01:26:38 Speaker 20: But again, if we don't receive it, we would still just give you what we have.

01:26:45 Speaker 04: On to my questions.

01:26:47 Speaker 04: In the report, you mentioned that public members on the Owen Sound Housing Company serve staggered three-year terms, and there are two positions that need to be filled by January 31, 2026.

01:26:59 Speaker 04: The board will provide recommendations to council to fill the positions that will begin on February 1 and expire on January 31, 2029.

01:27:07 Speaker 04: Which board are you talking about?

01:27:09 Speaker 04: Owen Sound Municipal Nonprofit Housing Corporation or Owen Sound Housing Company?

01:27:16 Speaker 04: Through your Worship, that would be the Owen Sound Housing Company, which could be one and the same as the Owen Sound Municipal Nonprofit Housing Corporation.

01:27:25 Speaker 04: Correct.

01:27:28 Speaker 20: An individual could be applying to both boards.

01:27:38 Speaker 20: Through your Worship, no, they are two separate boards.

01:27:40 Speaker 20: They are two legally separate entities.

01:27:43 Speaker 20: Even though historically we've considered it as one, going forward we're going to be considering it as two.

01:27:52 Speaker 04: But they could have the very same members.

01:27:54 Speaker 04: on the board?

01:27:58 Speaker 20: Through your Worship, it wouldn't be the exact same because they won't have a council member on the Nonprofit Housing Corporation, and they will on the Owen Sound Housing Company.

01:28:08 Speaker 04: Okay, it just doesn't seem like there's a lot of time for that all to take place before the January date that that term expires.

01:28:16 Speaker 04: However, that's for them to work out.

01:28:19 Speaker 04: My second comment is, in the report, it identifies three public members on Corporate Services will expire January 31, 2026.

01:28:29 Speaker 04: A total of five members need to be filled to ensure a full complement.

01:28:33 Speaker 04: Is it possible for council to identify these rather than three of them expiring at the same time, that the replacements expire at staggered terms?

01:28:47 Speaker 20: Through your Worship, yes, that is what we try to do, and we will bring that forward to you when we get the resumes, Councillor Merton.

01:29:00 Speaker 20: Your finger was kind of up.

01:29:01 Speaker 20: Oh, Councillor Merton, go ahead.

01:29:03 Speaker 20: Through you, Deputy Mayor.

01:29:07 Speaker 07: Going back to the original conversation about potentially excluding those whose applications were not complete at the time.

01:29:18 Speaker 07: Refresh my memory, please.

01:29:20 Speaker 07: The applications are submitted, either in printed or online form.

01:29:25 Speaker 07: Are there any other processes by which individuals can apply other than that?

01:29:33 Speaker 07: Before we make a decision to exclude, based on the mediums that we accept,

01:29:40 Speaker 07: I'd like for us to acknowledge that we have equity and inclusivity as one of our core pillars around the function of our city, and I do agree that if time allows,

01:29:58 Speaker 07: or maybe our protocol could change so that staff request a complete application to at least allow those who are new to the process to recognize there's more information required.

01:30:11 Speaker 07: However, we are excluding people when we only allow a certain way for applications to be submitted,

01:30:21 Speaker 07: and potentially we could look at how we can be more inclusive in the application process before we define the terms of exclusivity.

01:30:33 Speaker 07: So I understand that as a council we need complete information to make informed decisions, but we need to go back to the values and the principles that we're operating under,

01:30:45 Speaker 07: and perhaps our procedures need to be looked at before we make a decision to exclude.

01:30:51 Speaker 07: Thank you.

01:30:55 Speaker 07: Thanks, Councillor Merton.

01:30:56 Speaker 07: Councillor Kepke, go ahead.

01:30:58 Speaker 04: Just a clarification: How do we accept applications?

01:31:05 Speaker 20: Through your Worship, we do have a link on our website where people can fill out the online form and then upload their application form, or sorry, their resume.

01:31:14 Speaker 20: Or they can drop it off to City Hall, mail it in, or another option would be via email if that's easier as well.

01:31:24 Speaker 04: So then I'm asking the Councillor, what other means are you thinking of?

01:31:31 Speaker 07: There are individuals who have different ways of communication that may need to be able to access that information in a different technology or in a different mechanism.

01:31:44 Speaker 07: In some instances, an interview, telephone interview, may be required.

01:31:49 Speaker 07: What I'm really pointing out is before we exclude, make sure our process and procedure is inclusive to all and is not a barrier before we make a decision.

01:32:02 Speaker 07: So I think that is something potentially we need to review prior to any consideration of exclusivity, just to be confident that we are practicing what we are saying by being inclusive.

01:32:16 Speaker 07: Thank you.

01:32:18 Speaker 07: Okay.

01:32:19 Speaker 08: Thank you.

01:32:19 Speaker 08: And I'm going to go to Councillor Hamley just to check in with you.

01:32:22 Speaker 08: This conversation's gone longer than I thought.

01:32:25 Speaker 08: It's just a housekeeping report, and I don't have a motion on the floor yet.

01:32:28 Speaker 08: So, is there anything you'd like to add or move the motion, Councillor Hamley, to put on the floor for a vote?

01:32:34 Speaker 08: I'd be happy to move the motion.

01:32:38 Speaker 08: Okay.

01:32:38 Speaker 08: Thank you.

01:32:39 Speaker 08: So that is on the floor.

01:32:40 Speaker 08: Any further questions, comments?

01:32:43 Speaker 08: Not seeing any.

01:32:44 Speaker 08: All those in favour?

01:32:46 Speaker 08: And that's carried unanimously.

01:32:48 Speaker 08: Thank you.

01:32:50 Speaker 08: Item 10D is from the City Clerk again regarding the 2026 council and committee meeting calendar.

01:33:03 Speaker 20: Through you, Deputy Mayor Greig.

01:33:05 Speaker 20: Each year, city council approves the council and committee meeting calendar for the following year.

01:33:10 Speaker 20: Early approval of the calendar of meeting dates provides council, board, and committee members, staff, the public, and the media with advance notice of all meeting dates.

01:33:18 Speaker 20: Highlights of the calendar include, where possible, regular council meetings have been scheduled on the second and fourth Mondays of the month.

01:33:25 Speaker 20: Semiannual meetings with the police board in June and December, the municipal election day, inaugural meeting, and various training sessions are included.

01:33:33 Speaker 20: And no committee meetings have been scheduled after the election and into after the election and anticipation of possible changes to the committee structure, along with the calendar,

01:33:41 Speaker 20: the report highlights the number of meetings held in the last year, number of hours spent by staff in meetings, and the number of reports presented.

01:33:48 Speaker 20: The recommendation in the report is that City Council approves the 2026 Council and Committee Meeting Calendar as attached to the report.

01:33:57 Speaker 01: Councillor Kucera.

01:33:57 Speaker 01: Then, Councillor Koepke, next.

01:34:00 Speaker 01: Through your Worship, I'm happy to move the recommendation as this.

01:34:03 Speaker 01: Okay, it's on the floor, Councillor Koepke.

01:34:08 Speaker 01: Thank you.

01:34:09 Speaker 01: Couple questions.

01:34:10 Speaker 01: What is the date of the current council's last working day?

01:34:24 Speaker 20: Through you, Deputy Mayor.

01:34:25 Speaker 20: So the election will be held on October 26th, with the inauguration being held on November 16th.

01:34:31 Speaker 20: November 16th, so it would be on November 16th.

01:34:37 Speaker 04: Okay, and there are seven weeks identified between the council meeting of September 28th and the next council meeting of November 16th.

01:34:47 Speaker 04: What happens to the business of the city during that time?

01:34:58 Speaker 20: Through your Worship.

01:35:00 Speaker 20: In accordance with the lame duck provisions, we do have—we've delegated authority for certain items should business need to continue.

01:35:09 Speaker 20: Of course, business is always continuing, but council staff will have to wait and hold those staff reports until that November 30th meeting.

01:35:20 Speaker 04: Would you explain what constitutes lame duck?

01:35:28 Speaker 20: It's when the number of outgoing council members...

01:35:36 Speaker 20: I try to think of the best way to say this clearly.

01:35:40 Speaker 20: So, if you've got nine council members, and come nomination day, you need to have seven people still be able to be on council, and that could...

01:35:53 Speaker 20: So, if we don't have that, then we would be in lame duck as of August 21st.

01:35:57 Speaker 20: August 21st or we could become in lame duck after the election, which again, if we don't have seven returning councillors, if that makes sense.

01:36:08 Speaker 20: So, where what's the number seven come from?

01:36:10 Speaker 20: I thought it was a majority of six.

01:36:15 Speaker 20: I don't have the act up in front of me.

01:36:21 Speaker 20: It could be six.

01:36:22 Speaker 20: I would have to confirm.

01:36:27 Speaker 04: Okay, so my point is, seven weeks is a long time for the current council to be redundant, and anyone who's not coming back certainly feels totally useless.

01:36:39 Speaker 04: If you're ending on September 28th, I just think it's too many weeks that we're not carrying on as a council.

01:36:47 Speaker 04: And nomination day—if you can explain again when that is.

01:36:56 Speaker 20: Through your worship, nomination day would be on August 21st.

01:37:04 Speaker 20: Okay, Councillor Farmer, go ahead.

01:37:07 Speaker 02: Through the Deputy Mayor, two questions to staff.

01:37:10 Speaker 02: First, in the communication strategy, it notes that committee agendas will be posted 72 hours prior to meetings.

01:37:17 Speaker 02: I've heard from committee members that when we've got multi-hundreds of pages in a committee agenda for a Wednesday or Thursday, that can be overwhelming.

01:37:29 Speaker 02: I know that for council, we always have at least a weekend to work our way through sizeable packages.

01:37:36 Speaker 02: Could staff speak to that 72-hour period and whether it's possible to make sure the committee members have a full weekend to review what can be sizeable agendas?

01:37:53 Speaker 20: Through you, Deputy Mayor Greig.

01:37:55 Speaker 20: So the procedure bylaw has a minimum of 72-hour requirement, and certainly for our standing committees, we exceed that.

01:38:04 Speaker 20: We always try to publish the Friday before those meeting dates.

01:38:08 Speaker 20: It is a minimum, like I said, the 72 hours, and we do try to make sure we give that notice as much as possible.

01:38:19 Speaker 18: Thank you for clarifying that.

01:38:20 Speaker 18: That's a minimum, rather than we deliver it at this time.

01:38:24 Speaker 18: I have a concern with the agenda and would not support it, or the schedule would not support it as presented because we've scheduled a special meeting for January 19th,

01:38:35 Speaker 18: which is in the middle of the Roma conference.

01:38:37 Speaker 18: I note that that January 19th meeting was approved at a previous meeting, and I think that means that procedurally we'd have to reconsider a previous vote, and that might get complicated.

01:38:50 Speaker 18: I would look to staff for more information about whether we can move that particular date to avoid that conflict, assuming that Owen Sound might have business to attend to at Roma,

01:39:03 Speaker 18: as we have in years past.

01:39:06 Speaker 18: And I'm also wondering whether I should request to defer the motion if there's a motion on the floor,

01:39:13 Speaker 18: or if we should simply withdraw a motion to let staff bring this report back with more information in the future, assuming this isn't time-sensitive.

01:39:22 Speaker 18: Thanks, Councillor Farmer.

01:39:23 Speaker 08: You had flagged that earlier, and the clerk is prepared to just speak and address that date.

01:39:29 Speaker 08: So I'll just pass it back to the clerk to speak to that.

01:39:34 Speaker 20: Through you, Deputy Mayor Greig.

01:39:35 Speaker 20: If that is Council's wish, I can certainly—I would recommend postponing this report until the next meeting,

01:39:42 Speaker 20: so that I can provide an update to those reports or to those dates because that January 19th meeting is coming from the strong mayor powers,

01:39:52 Speaker 20: and we had to provide a resolution to shorten the budget window.

01:39:58 Speaker 20: So we would need to change those dates, which requires a resolution of council.

01:40:01 Speaker 20: And I would prefer to let council review that as a whole.

01:40:06 Speaker 20: And there isn't a time-sensitive issue with this report, so I could certainly bring that back at the next meeting.

01:40:14 Speaker 08: And I'll just go back to you to speak to the pertinent bylaw as well.

01:40:17 Speaker 08: That's attached to the agenda tonight.

01:40:19 Speaker 08: That would be part of that conversation as well, Briana.

01:40:25 Speaker 20: Through you, Deputy Mayor, there isn't a bylaw attached to the meeting calendar itself, so there wouldn't be no change required there.

01:40:35 Speaker 20: Okay.

01:40:35 Speaker 20: Thanks, Councillor Koepke.

01:40:39 Speaker 04: Thank you.

01:40:40 Speaker 04: I just forgot a few things when I was speaking.

01:40:43 Speaker 04: I wanted to identify that I'm not in favour of the motion on the floor, based on that seven-week span.

01:40:50 Speaker 04: I'd like to see it shortened up, and if council or if staff is bringing this back again and this gets deferred, I would like consideration of that.

01:41:02 Speaker 04: Okay.

01:41:03 Speaker 04: Any further questions, comments?

01:41:04 Speaker 01: I'll go to you, Councillor Hamley.

01:41:06 Speaker 01: There is a motion on the floor at this time.

01:41:08 Speaker 01: Anything you wish to speak to?

01:41:13 Speaker 01: Nothing to add.

01:41:13 Speaker 01: No. Okay.

01:41:15 Speaker 01: I'm not seeing any questions to my left.

01:41:18 Speaker 01: I would just note—I guess I would echo some of the same concern.

01:41:22 Speaker 01: It wouldn't actually be seven weeks.

01:41:23 Speaker 01: My concern is that the inaugural is just a pageantry and procedural, so it's actually going to be November 30th, which concerns me the most.

01:41:33 Speaker 01: You're going from September 28th to November 30th, in effect, before there's any material that's going through council, other than the orientation, so I did also have a concern with that extension.

01:41:47 Speaker 01: But perhaps a motion to postpone this report to the next meeting would be in order.

01:41:53 Speaker 01: Councillor Farmer, I so move that we postpone.

01:41:58 Speaker 01: Okay, and that's good.

01:41:59 Speaker 01: With Briana, I see her nodding her head.

01:42:01 Speaker 01: That would be fine.

01:42:02 Speaker 01: So, any further questions, comments?

01:42:04 Speaker 01: All those in favour?

01:42:06 Speaker 01: And that's carried unanimously.

01:42:08 Speaker 01: Thank you.

01:42:09 Speaker 01: And we are down to item 10E.

01:42:11 Speaker 01: So this time, I will vacate the chair and provide the verbal report from the county.

01:42:23 Speaker 07: Thank you, and I look to the Deputy Mayor to provide the verbal report from Grey County.

01:42:37 Speaker 01: Okay.

01:42:37 Speaker 01: We're going to go back a couple weeks for this, but we did have one meeting in August, and council received an update from staff on the Future Ready Programmemememememememememememe.

01:42:46 Speaker 01: This programmemememememememememememe has been developed in collabouration with Dufferin and Wellington Counties to advance energy-efficient, sustainable development.

01:42:53 Speaker 01: Staff believe the programmemememememememememememe, which is one of five key next steps in the County Climate Change Action Plan, is well aligned with the recent provincial direction related to Bill 17 from spring.

01:43:05 Speaker 01: The programmemememememememememememe will be a flexible points-based system that responds to feedback heard from industry stakeholders during 2024 sessions.

01:43:13 Speaker 01: Future Ready Grey is being supported by Georgian College, who is creating a plan to set our regional industry up for success to enable efficient construction of new homes.

01:43:23 Speaker 01: The four development categories include natural environment, community and transportation, built environment, and regional priority, which is space to identify other priorities with points allocation.

01:43:34 Speaker 01: The county signed an agreement with the province for approximately $3,282,000 in homelessness prevention plan funding, which is similar to the year prior.

01:43:44 Speaker 01: Funds will be disbursed such that $1 million goes to community outreach and supports and services, $818,000 for emergency short-term accommodations, $860,000 in benefits to obtain or maintain housing, and $433,000 in supportive housing support.

01:44:02 Speaker 01: County Council was informed that Lutheran Social Services has been approved of the remaining funding needs through the Affordable Housing Fund through CMHC for the new 40-unit build across from the transit station.

01:44:13 Speaker 01: And Council renewed the prior commitment in funding support for the project.

01:44:17 Speaker 01: And Grey County Council entered into a funding agreement with the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness.

01:44:23 Speaker 01: The $362,000 will fund two case coordinators, rent supplements, and housing rental costs supporting 48 households from the county by-name list with enhanced supports and case management to reduce evictions and decrease returns to homelessness.

01:44:38 Speaker 01: Minutes were received from the Joint Municipal Services Committee, which identified staffing, waste management,

01:44:44 Speaker 01: and doctor recruitment as top items to be reported back to committee on in the future to the committee chaired by Councillor Boddy.

01:44:53 Speaker 01: I welcome any questions and ask for Council's adoption of the verbal report.

01:44:58 Speaker 01: Does anyone have any questions?

01:45:00 Speaker 01: For Deputy Mayor?

01:45:01 Speaker 07: So, there's a motion to adopt.

01:45:04 Speaker 07: I will call the vote.

01:45:06 Speaker 07: All in favour?

01:45:07 Speaker 07: That's carried.

01:45:08 Speaker 07: Thank you.

01:45:09 Speaker 07: Chair is back to you.

01:45:19 Speaker 08: Thank you, Councillor Merton.

01:45:21 Speaker 08: So, our next item then is Item 11, which is the Consent Agenda, and I will—through Deputy Mayor Greig,

01:45:29 Speaker 08: on the consent agenda this evening is a report to award the RFP for engineering services for the Fourth Avenue West reconstruction.

01:45:43 Speaker 20: A report to award the RFT for the wastewater treatment plant fine screens.

01:45:47 Speaker 20: There's a report to appoint a director to the River District Board of Management.

01:45:51 Speaker 20: A report on EMO 2025 delegation update.

01:45:53 Speaker 20: Minutes for receipt from the Great Goose Community Safety and Wellbeing Planning Advisory Committee meeting on August 12th.

01:46:01 Speaker 20: Business licences were issued to Al Nasr Syrian Food at 132 Ninth Street East, Olga's Cafe at Heritage Place Mall, and Indulgence VIP at 966 Second Avenue East.

01:46:12 Speaker 20: D Bazaar is the new name of the grocery and convenience store at 1210 Third Avenue East.

01:46:18 Speaker 20: There is a new owner of Cali Nails located in the mall, and Naked Basics has relocated to 1095 First Avenue West.

01:46:25 Speaker 20: Gentle Feather Soaps is a home occupation at 1123 Third Avenue West.

01:46:29 Speaker 20: Mobile food business licences were issued to the Soda Garden and the Flying Fork.

01:46:33 Speaker 20: Harker peddler licences were issued for Opportunity Bridle, the Emancipation Festival, Summerfolk, Rogers Communications, and the Farmers Market for fundraising events.

01:46:43 Speaker 20: Final approval was issued for a City Hall illumination request for International Overdose Awareness Day.

01:46:48 Speaker 20: And the last item on the consent agenda is the information package.

01:46:51 Speaker 20: A full listing is available at 11H.

01:46:52 Speaker 08: Okay, and just before I go to the motion, are there any items that Council wishes to vote on separately?

01:47:03 Speaker 08: Not seeing any, Councillor Hamley is fine.

01:47:06 Speaker 08: I see on the screen shaking his head.

01:47:08 Speaker 08: So, Councillor Koepke, go ahead.

01:47:12 Speaker 04: Move by myself that, in consideration of the items listed on the September 8, 2025 consent agenda, City Council receives items 11A to H.

01:47:21 Speaker 04: 11A to H, 11H, and approves the recommendations contained in items 11A to 11D.

01:47:31 Speaker 04: And all those in favour.

01:47:34 Speaker 01: That's carried unanimously.

01:47:36 Speaker 01: And just a couple items within the consent agenda to probably just point out.

01:47:41 Speaker 01: But I wonder if I can go to the Director of Operations.

01:47:44 Speaker 01: There's a big awarding of a design tender for engineering services for Fourth Avenue West.

01:47:51 Speaker 01: That's a substantial project forthcoming in the City.

01:47:54 Speaker 01: If you want just to speak to that and provide a bit of an overview as to the scope and scale of that project.

01:48:02 Speaker 24: Thank you, Mr. Chair.

01:48:04 Speaker 24: So this is our next big project.

01:48:06 Speaker 24: We've now got Alpha Street behind us, and looking ahead.

01:48:10 Speaker 24: So the design work is to include everything from Fifteenth Street West to Twentieth Street West, and also includes a little chunk of Seventeenth Street West and Sixteenth Street West as well.

01:48:28 Speaker 24: They're little connections where they integrate with Fourth Avenue West.

01:48:33 Speaker 24: This, similar to Alpha Street, it's a full wall-to-wall reconstruction, if you will, complete underground replacement and new pedestrian facilities.

01:48:46 Speaker 24: We know the road has historic cultural value, being in a previous downtown, I believe, if I understand correctly.

01:48:59 Speaker 24: So, it's going to have a fair amount of sensitivity involved with the public engagement, streetscaping aspect of it.

01:49:10 Speaker 24: Not obviously as involved as the River District DRP project,

01:49:17 Speaker 24: but we do plan on speaking with the residents that are in the area because we have some options to deal with as far as traffic and pedestrian facilities there.

01:49:31 Speaker 24: The construction is intended to occur in two phases in 2026 and 2027, so it will be done in a couple of chunks.

01:49:43 Speaker 24: We expect once the design is complete.

01:49:48 Speaker 24: And I should back up.

01:49:49 Speaker 24: We're doing the design all at once to save on some duplicate costs that would be involved if we split it up into smaller pieces.

01:49:58 Speaker 24: And once that design is done, we could revisit the conversation of whether it makes sense to tender it all at once.

01:50:06 Speaker 24: But the expectation is that it'll be occurring over two contracts.

01:50:13 Speaker 24: So this is the first time Council's hearing about it.

01:50:16 Speaker 24: You will be hearing and seeing about it a couple times after now because we'll be having two public engagement sessions associated with our Operations Committee meeting,

01:50:27 Speaker 24: as well as I would envision that we'll be doing a bunch of outreach either through our City platform or something to that effect, in order to engage with the local residents.

01:50:40 Speaker 24: We are aware, obviously, that there's a park within those limits, as well as the Timothy Christian School.

01:50:48 Speaker 24: We already had a couple of pedestrian crossing projects in the works in that area, so we're integrating them into the project.

01:50:56 Speaker 24: So it's going to be a really interesting, multifaceted project that we have to look forward to for the next few years.

01:51:06 Speaker 01: Thanks for that, Lauren.

01:51:07 Speaker 01: Great to hear about the public engagement sessions coming up in the future.

01:51:11 Speaker 01: Any further questions?

01:51:13 Speaker 01: Not seeing any.

01:51:15 Speaker 01: The item of 11E minutes of the Grey Bruce Community Safety.

01:51:19 Speaker 01: Did we have a?

01:51:21 Speaker 01: You're on that, Councillor Farmer, to speak to some of the points there.

01:51:24 Speaker 01: Yeah.

01:51:25 Speaker 18: Thank you, through the Deputy Mayor.

01:51:26 Speaker 18: I could not attend that meeting as I was on parental leave at the time,

01:51:30 Speaker 18: but I will highlight that these minutes and slides include a ton of information about the annual work and work plans of the Community Safety Wellbeing Plan Advisory Table,

01:51:39 Speaker 18: as well as the associated tables underneath that.

01:51:41 Speaker 18: If anyone from the public is wondering what kind of collabouration is happening around issues like mental health and addictions, homelessness, poverty, and crime prevention, the reports in that meeting package lay out really clearly.

01:51:53 Speaker 18: And I wish Mr. Long was still here.

01:51:55 Speaker 18: I'd point him to the website because that package, like all of the information we talk about, is available at owensound.ca/meetings.

01:52:01 Speaker 18: They also include information about upcoming opportunities for the public, municipalities, and members of Council to engage, respectively, on various issues.

01:52:10 Speaker 18: I note that there will be community information sessions about human trafficking coming up in October, with the specific information about those dates being released in September.

01:52:20 Speaker 18: And there are upcoming opportunities to learn more about and volunteer with the Community Volunteer Income Tax Programmemememememememememememe, which helps to recover millions of dollars in tax returns and benefits for low-income folks in Grey Bruce.

01:52:31 Speaker 18: But it's powered by volunteers, and they always need your support.

01:52:34 Speaker 18: I will also say I'll speak to our correspondence package when we get that far.

01:52:40 Speaker 18: Happy to answer any questions for a meeting I wasn't at.

01:52:44 Speaker 18: Any questions?

01:52:45 Speaker 08: Not seeing any, and likely can just jump right to the correspondence package.

01:52:50 Speaker 08: You had something you wanted to point out back to you, Councillor Farmer.

01:52:54 Speaker 08: Thank you, through the Deputy Mayor.

01:52:56 Speaker 08: Two questions related to correspondence.

01:52:58 Speaker 02: There is a letter from the Nonprofit Housing Corporation that highlights an opportunity to adopt an affordable housing property tax subclass.

01:53:07 Speaker 02: My understanding is that we would have to rely on Grey County to move forward with that.

01:53:12 Speaker 02: But I'd be interested to hear from staff or county reps whether any actions are being taken on that opportunity.

01:53:21 Speaker 02: I look to Kate for a response there.

01:53:25 Speaker 14: Councillor Farmer is correct that any changes to subclasses happen at the upper tier level, and I have confirmation from the Treasurer at Grey County that this topic is on the agenda for September 11th.

01:53:40 Speaker 14: Yeah.

01:53:40 Speaker 14: Anything further, Councillor Farmer?

01:53:42 Speaker 14: Second item.

01:53:43 Speaker 14: Go ahead.

01:53:44 Speaker 14: First, thank you.

01:53:45 Speaker 14: That's exciting.

01:53:47 Speaker 18: Item 10 is a letter from Glengarry highlighting concerns about municipalities bearing the cost of not all eligible or of not all blue box materials being considered eligible when coming from institutions like municipalities, schools,

01:54:05 Speaker 18: etc. I'm curious if there are opportunities coming up in our intergovernmental relations or other avenues that staff are aware of to amplify those concerns.

01:54:16 Speaker 18: Because my understanding of the intention of moving to producer responsibility was that eventually producers would be responsible, but it seems like that expansion is stalling,

01:54:25 Speaker 18: and I'm wondering if we can add our voice to that growing.

01:54:28 Speaker 18: Go to City Manager first.

01:54:35 Speaker 18: I see before the Director.

01:54:38 Speaker 11: Thank you, and through you, Councillor Farmer.

01:54:40 Speaker 11: Yes, certainly.

01:54:41 Speaker 11: We can make note of that for our external government relations package.

01:54:45 Speaker 11: And when our advisor comes back with a more complete work plan for next year, we can note that,

01:54:52 Speaker 11: and then Council can make a decision as a whole if that's one of the items they'd like for staff to look at.

01:54:57 Speaker 11: Delegate?

01:54:57 Speaker 11: Have to look at delegate at Roma or other places.

01:55:03 Speaker 01: All good.

01:55:04 Speaker 01: Okay.

01:55:05 Speaker 01: Any other Councillors with any other items?

01:55:08 Speaker 01: Not seeing any, so that completes our business within Item 11.

01:55:13 Speaker 01: Item 12 is committee minutes with recommendations for approval, of which there are no committee minutes this evening.

01:55:19 Speaker 01: Item 13 is matters postponed, of which there are none.

01:55:22 Speaker 01: Item 14, there are no motions for which notice was previously given, so we're down to discussion of additional business.

01:55:29 Speaker 01: And at this time, I will bounce back to Councillor Farmer.

01:55:33 Speaker 01: I believe you had two items.

01:55:35 Speaker 01: Go ahead.

01:55:36 Speaker 18: Thank you, through the Deputy Mayor.

01:55:38 Speaker 18: This August was the 50th Summerfolk Festival, and the Mayor brought greetings on the opening night of that festival.

01:55:48 Speaker 18: They expanded to include a Thursday night as well, featuring local performers.

01:55:51 Speaker 18: And I know that there were folks who crossed international borders to come all the way to Owen Sound to celebrate that, and it was great.

01:56:00 Speaker 18: And it's along with the Salmon Spectacular, which we'll hear more about, flagship events at the end of the summer that bring a lot of folks to Owen Sound.

01:56:08 Speaker 18: And I just wanted to highlight that success and the benefit of fifty years of collabouration that way.

01:56:13 Speaker 18: In terms of upcoming events, I also wanted to highlight that as we're discussing a schedule that includes the municipal election of 2026.

01:56:23 Speaker 18: There is a steep learning curve to trying to get involved with municipal government, as all of us here know.

01:56:28 Speaker 18: And there is a grassroots group that is starting up to host events to raise people's awareness and connect people to learn more about being more engaged in municipal elections and local government,

01:56:40 Speaker 18: both from a running perspective and supporting people to run.

01:56:43 Speaker 18: That group is called We Vote Local, and they're hosting a series of information and education networking events at the Rumpus Room in Owen Sound on the third Thursday of each month.

01:56:57 Speaker 18: The first event is coming up on Thursday, September 18th, from seven to nine.

01:57:01 Speaker 18: Everyone is welcome, and if folks are watching this meeting, I assume they're interested in this kind of thing and might want to go, so they can find out more at wevotelocal.ca.

01:57:10 Speaker 25: Okay, thanks, Councillor Farmer.

01:57:13 Speaker 25: Councillor Middlebrooks.

01:57:17 Speaker 13: Thank you, through Deputy Mayor.

01:57:19 Speaker 13: So yes, myself and a number of Councillors were in attendance at the Salmon Derby on the Monday, and we were the bartenders for the evening.

01:57:31 Speaker 13: And it was a very successful evening, great music.

01:57:35 Speaker 13: We had the Eagles that were performing that night.

01:57:38 Speaker 13: The tent was packed.

01:57:39 Speaker 13: We had a lot of fun.

01:57:41 Speaker 13: So I just want to extend congratulations to the Sportsmen's Association on another successful Salmon Derby.

01:57:48 Speaker 13: It's a huge event that is a big draw for the area, and you know brings a lot of economic development to the area.

01:57:57 Speaker 13: And it celebrates our local anglers and their conservation efforts.

01:58:00 Speaker 13: So another job well done, and look forward to next year.

01:58:04 Speaker 13: And also, I was one of the delegates for the AMO Convention in Ottawa over the weekend of August 17th to the 20th, alongside Councillor Kukreja and Sir Kukreja and the Mayor.

01:58:19 Speaker 13: I just want to give a shout out to everyone who was there from Grey County and from the City,

01:58:27 Speaker 13: and to the staff who from the City Manager's office who did a great job on the delegations.

01:58:33 Speaker 13: We had six delegations for the City meeting with various ministers on various issues.

01:58:40 Speaker 13: We were very well prepared and very well received.

01:58:44 Speaker 13: And I see Chief Eagleson here in chamber tonight, and he was our lead on two of the delegations, and he knocked it out of the park.

01:58:51 Speaker 13: You did such a great job, you know, with the Minister, especially of Health, on advocating for healthcare in this area and to expand our resources.

01:59:03 Speaker 13: So, great job done by you, and another shout out to staff for the cooperation in reaching out to neighbouring municipalities.

01:59:11 Speaker 13: It was really nice to have neighbouring municipalities sit in with our delegations.

01:59:16 Speaker 13: We had Warden Matrasov, who spoke at some of ours.

01:59:20 Speaker 13: We had Dave Shori, the Economic Director or Executive Director of Georgian College, who was in on a couple of ours.

01:59:28 Speaker 13: MPP Paul Vickers made it to all of our delegations, I believe, and he was an outstanding support.

01:59:33 Speaker 13: He spoke on the issues, and he seemed to be very well respected by his colleagues.

01:59:39 Speaker 13: And I think I felt in every single one of our delegations this year that we were heard and understood, and I think that we actually made some headway.

01:59:52 Speaker 13: So, great job to everybody that was involved, and thank you to the staff who had us well prepared.

02:00:01 Speaker 01: Okay, thanks for those items, and I did have one item I want to touch upon for this weekend.

02:00:07 Speaker 01: It's the big annual weekend, the Concours d'Elegance.

02:00:10 Speaker 01: Moncure Deligance returns to the area.

02:00:15 Speaker 01: It's located in Georgian Bluffs.

02:00:16 Speaker 01: It's a lot of excitement for car enthusiasts, art enthusiasts, because these really are works of art around the area.

02:00:25 Speaker 01: And it kicks off Friday evening.

02:00:27 Speaker 01: There's an event welcoming participants at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, and we're super excited to host individuals and participants there once again.

02:00:40 Speaker 01: Saturday also has a tour d'élegance through Grey Bruce, so exciting opportunity for residents to be able to see some beautiful works of art and classic cars streaming by.

02:00:51 Speaker 01: And Saturday is always a big day with this event downtown Owen Sound, with the Cars and Coffee, and the popular Concours de l'Élégance will be once again on First Avenue West, I guess,

02:01:07 Speaker 01: That's front of the library in that 800 block, so always lots of people streaming through, checking out the classic cars on Main Street and the entrance into the Concours de l'Élégance on First Avenue,

02:01:20 Speaker 01: as well as there are two exciting seminars being presented at the Roxy that are aligned and part of the event as well,

02:01:29 Speaker 01: and those start at 1 p.m. and it all finishes with the great show on Sunday, the Concours at Cabot Beach, so we wish them well this weekend.

02:01:40 Speaker 01: Hopefully, it's a great weekend.

02:01:42 Speaker 01: They have been annual contributors for significant funds to the local hospital foundation, and that goes a long way to enriching our community with healthcare provision and needs in the area.

02:01:57 Speaker 01: So, thank you very much to the organisers for the Concours, and we hope you and all the participants have a great week.

02:02:04 Speaker 01: Participants have a great weekend and experiencing the area.

02:02:09 Speaker 01: So, that is it for items of additional business.

02:02:16 Speaker 01: We are to item sixteen, which is motion that committee of the whole rise and report.

02:02:20 Speaker 01: Councillor Koepke.

02:02:24 Speaker 04: Moved by myself that the committee of the whole rise and report.

02:02:28 Speaker 04: And all those in favour.

02:02:31 Speaker 04: That's carried unanimously.

02:02:32 Speaker 01: Thank you.

02:02:34 Speaker 01: Item 17.

02:02:35 Speaker 01: Motion to adopt proceedings in committee of the whole.

02:02:38 Speaker 04: Moved by myself, seconded by Councillor Kukreja, that the action taken in committee of the whole in considering public meetings, deputations, and presentations, public forum matters arising from correspondence, reports of city staff, consent agenda,

02:02:53 Speaker 04: committee minutes, matters postponed, motions for which notice was previously given, and additional business be confirmed by this council.

02:03:03 Speaker 01: And all those in favour, and that's carried unanimously.

02:03:07 Speaker 01: Thank you.

02:03:09 Speaker 01: Item eighteen is notices of motion.

02:03:11 Speaker 01: Any notices of motion this evening?

02:03:13 Speaker 01: Not seeing any.

02:03:15 Speaker 01: Item nineteen is a motion to move into closed session.

02:03:19 Speaker 01: And before we before I entertain that motion, before we move into closed session, I would like to note that if you are watching this meeting on Rogers Cable TV or the Rogers TV website,

02:03:30 Speaker 01: their feed will not reconnect to this meeting when we return to the open session to report out of the closed session and review the bylaws.

02:03:37 Speaker 01: If you would like to view the remainder of the open session, you can watch the live stream on the city's council and committees web page at www.owensound.ca/meetings.

02:03:44 Speaker 01: The video recording of the meeting will also be posted on this web page following the meeting.

02:03:54 Speaker 01: To Councillor Koepke for a motion to move into closed session.

02:04:01 Speaker 04: Moved by myself, seconded by Councillor Kukreja, that City Council now move into closed session to consider minutes of the closed session of the special council meeting held on July twenty-one, two thousand and twenty-five,

02:04:14 Speaker 04: and one matter regarding labour relations and employee negotiations respecting the Owen Sound Professional Firefighters Association.

02:04:24 Speaker 04: And all those in favour.

02:04:27 Speaker 01: Start with Councillor Hamley this time.

02:04:29 Speaker 01: That's carried unanimously, and we are going to proceed now into.

02:28:51 Speaker 01: You good?

02:28:52 Speaker 01: Okay, I've got the green light here.

02:28:54 Speaker 01: It is seven fifty-eight p.m. and City Council is returning to the open session.

02:29:01 Speaker 01: During the closed session, City Council A reviewed minutes of the closed session of a special council meeting held on July twenty-first, two thousand twenty-five,

02:29:35 Speaker 01: and B discussed one matter regarding labour relations and employee negotiations respecting the Owen Sound Professional Firefighters Association, and no direction was provided.

02:29:45 Speaker 01: So we are now to item twenty-one, which is the bylaws.

02:29:53 Speaker 20: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Greig.

02:29:54 Speaker 20: The bylaws listed for approval on tonight's agenda include the confirmatory bylaw, a bylaw to amend the short-term rental bylaw respecting housekeeping, human trafficking information, rental cap increase,

02:30:04 Speaker 20: and removal of principal residence and rental cap in C1 zones.

02:30:08 Speaker 20: A bill to amend the procedural bylaw to incorporate provisions respecting strong mayor powers.

02:30:13 Speaker 20: A bill to amend the acting mayor bylaw to incorporate provisions respecting strong mayor powers.

02:30:19 Speaker 20: A bill to amend the notice bylaw to remove budget notice requirements due to strong mayor powers.

02:30:24 Speaker 20: A bill to amend the delegation of powers and duties bylaw to add provisions respecting strong mayor powers.

02:30:29 Speaker 20: A bill to amend the board committee bylaw to add provisions respecting strong mayor powers and make various appointments.

02:30:36 Speaker 20: A bill to enter into a grant agreement with the County of Grey respecting a contribution towards the purchase of lands for affordable housing,

02:30:43 Speaker 20: a bill to execute a contribution agreement with the Minister of Transportation respecting a Connecting Links Programmemememememememememememe contribution, a bill to execute a lease agreement with Brandon Vandershot respecting five parking stalls on 11th Street West,

02:30:55 Speaker 20: east of First Avenue West, a bill to execute an agreement with WSP Canada Inc. respecting Fourth Avenue West reconstruction, a bill to execute an agreement with Baseline Constructors Inc. respecting wastewater treatment plant fine screens.

02:31:09 Speaker 20: A bylaw to amend the fees and charges.

02:31:10 Speaker 20: Bylaw to amend fees for bylaw enforcement activities.

02:31:14 Speaker 20: And a bylaw to adopt bylaw enforcement policy AF 012 and repeal policy CCRS BL 6.

02:31:22 Speaker 04: Councillor Kirby, moved by myself, seconded by Councillor Kucera, that bylaw numbers two thousand twenty-five dash zero nine five through to and including two thousand twenty-six one hundred eight be passed and enacted.

02:31:38 Speaker 08: And sorry for that.

02:31:38 Speaker 08: I actually should have asked if there's any bylaws that anyone wishes to pull and vote on separately.

02:31:43 Speaker 08: So I have that on the floor.

02:31:46 Speaker 08: Go ahead, Councillor Farmer.

02:31:49 Speaker 18: I would ask from the amendment.

02:31:51 Speaker 18: I would like to speak to item twenty-one B, which is bylaw two thousand and twenty-five zero nine six, respecting short-term rentals, and if that.

02:32:01 Speaker 18: My understanding is, because it's on the floor, that requires either a friendly amendment or a motion to amend at this point.

02:32:09 Speaker 01: Can we save and accept your motion, Councillor Koepke?

02:32:13 Speaker 01: Save and accept 21B and entertain it separately.

02:32:21 Speaker 01: I'm not in favour of doing that as a mover.

02:32:25 Speaker 04: The Clerk had another way of dealing with that, I think.

02:32:28 Speaker 04: To the Clerk.

02:32:35 Speaker 20: Through Your Worship, we had talked about first having a motion to waive the notice provision to deal with it separately.

02:32:46 Speaker 20: If that's the suggestion that Councillor Koepke is speaking to.

02:32:54 Speaker 04: Okay, so that had to have come before the motion I made.

02:32:57 Speaker 04: Then I will accept a friendly amendment to save and accept bylaw 2025-096.

02:33:06 Speaker 08: Okay.

02:33:07 Speaker 08: And any further bylaws to be separated?

02:33:10 Speaker 08: Nope.

02:33:10 Speaker 08: Not seeing any.

02:33:11 Speaker 08: All those in favour of those bylaws passing?

02:33:14 Speaker 08: I do not see Councillor Hamley on the screen at this point.

02:33:17 Speaker 08: So that vote is carried five in favour.

02:33:20 Speaker 08: Back to Councillor Farmer.

02:33:25 Speaker 18: I'm going to move that we waive the procedural bylaw to deal with a time-sensitive matter relating to STRs.

02:33:35 Speaker 18: I had spoken in the spring when we received the report that I would bring motion to the effect of increasing the rental cap,

02:33:43 Speaker 18: but the delay of the report to my parental leave meant that I couldn't speak to it.

02:33:51 Speaker 18: I request to waive notice of motion for the purposes of reconsidering and speaking to that change, which will require a two-thirds majority, to my understanding.

02:34:06 Speaker 01: And that's a two-thirds vote of the whole of council, and that's a motion to reconsider.

02:34:12 Speaker 01: This.

02:34:15 Speaker 01: I'll go to the Clerk first.

02:34:19 Speaker 20: Through you, Your Worship.

02:34:20 Speaker 20: Motions to reconsider at a subsequent meeting require a motion to waive the notice provision.

02:34:25 Speaker 20: So first, we'd need a motion to waive the notice provision.

02:34:28 Speaker 20: If that carries with two-thirds of the whole of council, which is six, then we would have a motion to reconsider, which is also two-thirds of council, and then the following motion,

02:34:40 Speaker 20: if each one continues to carry.

02:34:45 Speaker 20: Okay.

02:34:47 Speaker 08: With the bylaw right in front of me, I wondered why we were entertaining that first motion.

02:34:54 Speaker 08: Okay, so is there a seconder for that first motion?

02:35:00 Speaker 08: And I'm not seeing one, so therefore that motion will not be entertained at this time.

02:35:07 Speaker 08: And we will go back to bylaw 21B, which is a bylaw to amend short-term rental bylaw number 2023-115.

02:35:16 Speaker 08: Councillor Koepke.

02:35:18 Speaker 04: Moved by myself, seconded by Councillor Kukreja.

02:35:21 Speaker 04: Councillor Kukreja, that bylaw 2025-096 be passed and enacted.

02:35:26 Speaker 01: And all those in favour, and we've got Councillor Hamley back on the screen.

02:35:30 Speaker 01: So that's carried six in favour, and passed.

02:35:35 Speaker 01: So at this time it is eight o'clock, and we are adjourned.

02:35:40 Speaker 01: Thank you very much, everyone.